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THE PROGRESS 



AND 



a* 



tejjerfe af America; 



OR, 



THE MODEL REPUBLIC, ITS GLORY, OR ITS FALL 



WITH A REVIEW OF 



t €mm of % gttline anb JfaHttri 



OF 



THE REPUBLICS OF SOUTH AMERICA, MEXICO, 
AND OF THE OLD WORLD; 



APPLIED TO 



THE PRESENT CRISIS IN THE UNITED STATES. 





" Shall we, upon the footing of our land, 
Send fair-play orders, and make compromise, 
Insinnation, parley, and base truce, 
To arms invasive?" 



NEW EDITION. 












NEW YOEK: 
EDWARD WALKER, 114 FULTON-STREET. 



I w 









J 

3 



§tbic;itioiL 



THIS VOLUME IS INSCRIBED TO 

all' 

WHO LOYE AMERICAN INSTITUTIONS, 

AND DE8IEE TO SEE THEM PEEPETUATED 

£o 33lcss tfje HLibfntj, 

AND 

* DESCEND IN THEIR PURITY TO FUTURE GENERATIONS. 



" Breathes there a man with soul so dead, 
Who never to himself hath said — 

This is my own, my native land ?" 

» Scott. 



" Of all the dispositions and habits -which lead to political prosperity, 
religion and morality arc indispensable supports. In vain would thai 
man claim the tribute of patriotism, who should labor to subvert these 
great pillars of human happiness— these firmest props of the duties of 
men and citiz Washington. 



PUBLISHER'S PREFACE. 



For some time past, the publisher of this work has enter- 
tained the idea of presenting to the citizens of the Union, a 
volume devoted to national interests. Maturing his plans, 
he laid them before a number of friends — gentlemen dis- 
tinguished alike for their patriotism, social standing, and 
wide-spread reputation — and they were cordially endorsed 
as the promise, if carried out, of supplying a book really 
needed at this present crisis. 

The gentlemen selected to write the various chapters, 
were chosen with reference to their ability to treat upon the 
subjects committed to their especial charge; and the pub- 
lisher indulges the belief that their labor, careful research 
and investigation, joined with their conscientious desire to 
accomplish a work of so momentous interest, will be appre- 
ciated by every patriotic and reflective mind. 

The subjects treated of concern not only the statesman 
and politician, but every American citizen, however hum- 
ble or exalted — whether native or naturalized. They ex- 
tend over a vast range of valuable facts and historical illus- 



6 publisher's preface. 

trations pertaining to the rights and immunities of citizens 
under a republican government. The present anomalous 
state of political parties throughout the country suggests 
a reason for the appearance of the work ; and in the 
endeavor to meet this exigency it has been carefully pre- 
pared. 

As a nation, we are essentially eclectic in character, 
receiving constant accession to our numbers from all parts 
of the civilized globe. It is, therefore, of the first import- 
ance to the integrity and security of our free institutions, 
that the balance of power in the republic should be sedu- 
lously guarded ; that a spirit of nationality should rule in 
the councils of our government ; and that the element of 
foreign political faith, as well as foreign manners and cus- 
toms, be carefully precluded from vitiating our national 
morals, — the proud distinction of a free people consisting 
in its public virtue, which is the animating and sustaining 
principle of true democracy. It is not enough that we 
eloryin our boasted liberties, — we must be jealous of their 
Integrity — must learn wherein consists their security, their 
defences, and their danger. 

It was a maxim of one of the "early heroes of liberty," 
that "none could love freedom heartily bnt good men; the 
rest love not freedom but license, which never hath more 
indulgence than under tyrants." This fact is amply sus- 
tained by the testimony of all history. The knowledge 
which we acquire at our own expense is undoubtedly the 



publisher's preface. 7 

most efficacious, but that which we learn from the misfor- 
tunes of others is the safest, inasmuch as we receive instruc- 
tion without pain or danger to ourselves. 

The "Voice to America" is not the product of any 
clique ; it enforces the opinions of no one party ; it has 
not been prepared under the auspices, nor has it received 
the sanction, of any set of men organized for political 
purposes ; but the publisher has been cheered on in his 
purpose, in the confident assurance that, notwithstanding 
sectiona lfeeling, and the specious pretences of fanaticism 
and political partisanship, there is yet a sufficient number of 
true-hearted Americans, pledged for the defence and pres- 
ervation of the inestimable privileges conferred upon our 
common country, under the segis of a glorious constitution. 
The book, therefore, goes forth to the world, claiming only 
the deference due to honestly-expressed opinions. It relies 
alone, for success, on the truth of its arguments, and the 
sacredness of its mission. 

New York, August, 1855. 



CONTENTS. 



Page* 

Preface 5 

The United States — Retrospective and Prospective 13 

The Ancient Republics — Early Civilization 27 

Sparta and Athens 35 

The Fall of Rome 53 

Italian Liberty in the Middle Ages 73 

The Anglo-Saxon Race and Freedom: 83 

Heroes of the Founders of Liberty ,. 97 

The Boundaries of Countries, how established 133 

Romanism and Freedom 141 

Effects of Romanism and Protestantism on Civilization 149 

The Rights of Conscience 167 

Religious Toleration 179 

The Bible the Charter of Liberty 191 

Principles and Perils of our Common Education 201 

The Political Power of the Pope 215 

Evils of Military Organizations exclusively of Foreigners 229 

Demoralizing Influence of Demagogism , ; 237 

What Constitutes the Right to Vote ? 245 

Fallacy of supposing American Institutions need no Safeguards ... 261 

Naturalization Laws of the United States 273 

United States and Immigration 283 

\ The Citizen of a Republic 291 

American Nationality 299 



10 CONTEXTS. 

Page. 

Necessity" of American Habits and Principles 315 

Right of the Majority to Rule 323 

Freedom from Foreign Influence 329 

Origin of Political Power 33*7 

Mexico and the South American Republics 345 

America the Theatre of the Great Demonstration 355 

Secret Societies, their Use and Abuse 363 

The American Republic, the Hope of the "World 373 

APPENDIX. 

I. — Secret Societies and Oaths, 881 

II.— Relations of the Pope to the Civil Power, 3S5 

III. — Foreigners and the Elective Franchise, 3SS 

IV.— Religious Toleration— Heretics and Romanist Graveyards, 391 

V.— Military in the Church, 392 

YL — American Nationality, 393 

VII.— American Elections, 395 

VIII.— "What causes Election Riots 395 

IX.— Golden Maxims of "Washington, 397 

X.— Maxims and Opinions of Eminent Statesmen, etc., 399 



VOICE TO AMERICA. 



THE UNITED STATES -RETROSPECTIVE AND 
PROSPECTIVE. 

"With America, and in America, a new era commences in human affairs. This era is distin- 
guished by free representative governments, by entire religious liberty, by improved systems of 
national intercourse, by a newly-awakened and unconquerable spirit of free inquiry, and by a diffu- 
sion of knowledge through the community, before altogether unknown and unheard of." 

Daniel "Webster. 

When the inhabitants of the old Thirteen Colonies arose against 
the despotic and mercenary aggression of England, they were three 
millions of people, mostly scattered farmers. They inhabited a strip 
of the Atlantic seashore — a half-wild territory between the Allegha- 
nies and the ocean — about one thousand miles long, and a hundred 
and fifty miles wide, and containing only six towns of any size, three 
of which had less than ten thousand inhabitants, and none over twen- 
ty thousand. It is true that they were an enterprising, industrious, 
honest, intelligent community — a happy and flourishing nation in 
fact, though not in form. But whatever were the precise point of 
prosperity to which they had then attained, it was in spite of the 
discouragements of their supreme government that they attained it ; 
for the agriculture, manufactures, and commerce of the colonies were 
capriciously controlled and restricted for the advantage of English 
speculators ; and the laws and constitutions of the little republics 
were constantly attacked and insulted by the placemen of the English 
administration, for the sake of enforcing arbitrary schemes of govern- 



12 A VOICE TO AMERICA. 

rnent, fit only for tributary slaves. Navigation acts, stamp acts, writs 
of assistance, prohibitions of the manufacture of iron, the manufacture 
of cloths, of hats, of every thing which Englishmen wanted to manu- 
facture, and endless other troublesome and unrighteous enactments, 
perplexed and annoyed the provinces. Yet the new nation, which, 
under the name of the United States of America, spoke itself into 
being by the Declaration of Independence, contained all the elements 
of a healthy, powerful, and vigorous life. 

With the fervent sympathy of the majority of the people, but with 
lukewarm aid or timid indifference from very many; with over- 
whelming fears and doubts on the part of some of the wisest and best 
men of the day, and even in spite of the venomous treasons and in- 
testine wars of the Tory population, the new commonwealth agonized 
through the seven years of the revolutionary struggle, fainting and 
almost torn in pieces, and achieved what seemed at the moment to be 
a fruitless independence. 

At the end of that war it was indeed a nation in name, and one in 
form ; but it had little of actual national life. It was repeatedly on 
the extreme verge of falling into fragments — into anarchy ; of return- 
ing to a monarchical form of government. One hundred and seven- 
ty millions of dollars in money had been actually spent in the war, 
and that when money was worth nearly twice as much as it is now, 
and when the nation was not one-twentieth as rich as at present. The 
countiy had been ravaged through and through : crops had been de- 
stroyed, towns and houses burned. The inhabitants were sick, dis- 
abled, demoralized, fled ; manufactures had been encouraged but lit- 
tle ; commerce was stagnant, or even utterly dead ; disbanded and im- 
moral soldiers roamed up and down, unable to obtain work, or to get 
their wages, even in the good-for-nothing continental money, which 
was w r orth sometimes three cents on the dollar, sometimes nothing, 
and of which one hundred dollars were once given for a mug of cider. 
The central government was everywhere despised and abused — a beg- 
garly, strengthless shadow. It labored under an immense home and 
foreign debt, which it could not pay ; it was an importunate and un- 



UNITED STATES — RETROSPECTIVE AND PROSPECTIVE. 13 

welcome beggar for home and foreign loans, — unsuccessfully, because 
it could not meet its former engagements ; its requisitions upon the 
States were neglected or refused ; it was even bullied in its own hall 
by a sergeant's squad of unpaid mutineers dunning for their wages, 
against whom the militia of Philadelphia declined to protect it, except 
in case of actual assault and battery. 

The States quarrelled with each other about lands, or insulted and 
encroached on the miserable central government. There arose in 
many of them, within a few years after the termination of the war, 
home insurrections of their own. The whisky 'insurrection in Penn- 
sylvania ; Shays' insurrection in Massachusetts, with the risings that 
preceded it ; a similar mob in New Hampshire, which, for a time, be- 
sieged the legislature and courts of that State ; the general disorgani- 
zation of the western country, and other such tumults, showed the 
unsettled and anarchic condition of men's minds, as well as their 
poverty, and distress. Wise men, the revolutionary fathers of the 
country, communicated to each, other their apprehensions of the loss 
of our nationality, almost at its birth. Despondency weighed upon 
the best of the patriots of the day, and with painful forebodings they 
speculated upon the probabilities of many republics — of a monarchy 
— of a retreat beneath the English power. 

The native sense of the country, however, was at last aroused to the 
exigencies of the case, and the people, responding to the call that 
emanated from the Virginia Legislature, deputed that great and wise 
assembly which created the Constitution of the United States — a 
frame of government the nearest perfection which the world has ever 
seen ; by the operation of which the nation was at once invigorated ; 
under which it forthwith sprang out into that unparalleled career of 
growth, whose constantly increasing speed has already made all the 
world astonished spectators, and which seems to possess an immortal 
vigor equal to any emergency. 

Within less than three-quarters of a century of national life under 
this constitution, the United States of America have arisen to a prouder 
height of physical strength and of moral power, than has ever been 



14 A VOICE TO AMERICA. 

occupied by any other nation in the world. The allotted life of a man 
covers a period equal to the whole existence of our mighty empire. 
Men are this day alive and well who voted for the adoption of the 
Constitution, and for Washington in 1789. At the end of the Revo- 
lutionary War, we numbered about three millions of people — as 
many as now inhabit the single State of New York ; now we are 
twenty-five millions. Then we had nine hundred thousand square 
miles of territory ; now we have three millions of square miles — 
half of North America — three times as much as France, Great 
Britain, Ireland, Austria, Prussia, Spain, Portugal, Belgium, Hol- 
land, and Denmark— a domain as large as the Roman Empire ever 
was ; a territory by the side of which the possessions of the proud- 
est European dynasties are "but a patch on the earth's surface."* 
European distances are steps to ours; European rivers are brooks. 
It is as far across the United States from New York to San Fran- 
cisco as from London to Ispahan, in Persia ; from New York to 
New Orleans is as for as from Paris to St. Petersburg, or from Lon- 
don to Constantinople. The Mississippi is twice as long as the Dan- 
ube; the*Ohio is six hundred miles longer than the Rhine; the 
Hudson is navigated, within the State of New York, a hundred and 
twenty miles — :i distance greater than the length of the Thames. 
Nor is this vast expanse in danger of falling apart by its own 
weight: it is knit the tighter as it expands, by the iron bands of 
the railroad and the telegraph. Our country extends through every 
healthy climate. Avoiding the inhospitable wastes of the Arctic 
snow, and the fever-haunted jungles of the tropic zone, it stretches 
from the cold and bracing mountain air of New England and Oregon, 
to the everlasting spring of the sunny South. Within our limits is 
found <■■. of ill'- forest, from the towering pines of Maine, and 

the more gigantic cedars of California, four hundred ugh; the 

northern oak, the birch, ad the other hardy woods of its 

kindred forests^to the In i f the south, the cypress, and the mag- 
nolia, the orange, the cocoanut, the banana, and the palm. We 
* Webster's Letter to Hulsemann. 



UNITED STATES — RETROSPECTIVE AXD PROSPECTIVE. 15 

grow alike the corn, flax, and wheat of temperate regions, and the 
sugar and cotton, the lice and indigo of the south. From the bosom 
of the earth we dig all the precious and all the useful minerals : gold 
comes from California at the rate of seventy-five millions of dollars a 
year ; pure copper is blasted or chopped out from the mines at Lake 
Superior by the ton together. There is lead enough in Wisconsin to 
supply the world ; iron is piled into mountains in Missouri, and its 
ores are found in the majority of the States ; and the coal of single 
States — Ohio and Pennsylvania — is sufficient to furnish all the earth 
with fuel for thousands of years. 

Nor are our treasures inaccessible. There is only one of the great 
divisions of the earth — Europe — which has a greater proportion of 
seacoast to the square mile than North America. The shore-line of 
the United States, on the two great oceans and the Mexican Gulf, is 
eighteen thousand miles. The land is pierced through and through 
with enormous rivers, upon which we possess forty-nine thousand 
miles of steamboat navigation, together with thirty-five hundred 
miles of shore on the sides of the great northern lakes. Five thou- 
sand miles of supplementary artificial navigation by canals com- 
pletes this most enormous amount of internal water conveyance. 
Within the single State of New York there are three thousand miles'- 
of navigable inland waters. Besides the innumerable ordinary roads, 
we are netted and woven together by twenty thousand miles of com- 
pleted railroads, and thirteen thousand miles more, now in process of 
completion. Upon these inland routes a capital of one thousand mill- 
ions of dollars is invested in the gigantic transfers of our internal trade 
and travel. 

We have not been idle in improving the advantages of our situa- 
tion. Our wealth and industry — our credit and commerce, both at 
home and abroad, have enlarged to an immeasurable extent. At 
the close of the Revolution we had possibly seven hundred and.fifty 
millions of dollars' worth of real and personal estate ; now we have 
at least fifteen thousand millions of dollars' worth, besides fourteen 
hundred millions of acres of public lands — enough to give a large 



16 A VOICE TO AMEBIC A. 

farm to every man, woman, and child in the nation. Then, our am- 
bassadors were besieging European capitalists and governments for a 
hundred thousand dollars ; now, the nation distributes at once f 
millions of surplus revenue ; bears four hundred millions of debt with- 
out feeling it, and sells the privilege of lending to her at six and ten 
cents for every dollar that she will condescend to borrow. Then, we 
had no manufactures ; now, we have more than five hundred millions 
of dollars invested in manufactories, whose annual productions are 
worth more than a thousand millions of dollars. Our cotton manu- 
factories alone, while the English millmen confess that the business in 
it Britain has readied its very utmost capacity of development, 
now employing eighty millions of capital, are using thirty-rive 
millions of dollars' worth a year of raw material, and turning out a 
yearly product worth seventy millions of dollars, and yet are stead- 
ily increasing, while Ave compete with our English rivals in our own 
market, and all over the world. Then, we had neither c< i 
nor shipping; now, it is not long since we dismantled a national \ - 
ship to send her, laden with the superabundance of our rich fields, to 
dne in Ireland. rflowing plenty we have 

arted to the - s, of Madeira, oi 

Our cotton crop, besides supplying the immense home demand just 
stated, is sent across the sea at the rate of eleven hundred millions of 
pounds a year, and. ing manul;; :he primary 

human d '.ng to all nations, from the tropic to the pole, 

Mian to the Chi] 
The extent of the shore line of the United States, on the Atlantic, 
Pacific, and the Mexican Gulf, is about twelve thousand miles. The 
northern and south* amount to at least six thousand 

more ; making, in all, mi miles — equal to three quar- 

ters of the i ind th; 1 world. 

marine on earth. Fourteen 
bun 

teen thousand sail > I a half millions of 

tons burden, carrying a portion of our enormous mass of inter- 



UNITED STATES — RETROSPECTIVE AND PROSPECTIVE. 17 

nal exchanges, are bringing yearly from abroad three hundred mill- 
ions of tons of foreign, and carrying away two hundred and eighty 
millions of domestic merchandise. 

These vast totals, indicating such limitless resources and such 
superhuman energy, and demonstrating only the aggregate of the 
resources in territory and riches wielded by our population, consti- 
tuting the greatest force On earth, yet only refer to physical power, 
and do not by any means give a comprehensive view even of that 
power.* However important our pecuniary wealth and material 
power at this present moment may be, as securing to us a high 
station and commanding influence in the great commonwealth of 
nations, there are other departments in our national life, of profoundly 
greater significance. The state of our intellectual, social, and moral 
development, after all, is of infinitely more importance than our prop- 
erty per head, or our annual revenue. These mere acquisitions may 
easily depreciate in value. Our vast mass of wealth naturally tends, 
of itself, to be scattered and lost. It is the mind and the soul which 
inform and impel the people of our country, which constitute their 
real character, which alone can determine their lasting prosperity, 
even in respect to dollars and cents, and which certainly are the only 
basis upon which can be raised or maintained a collective or individ- 
ual character which can justify our national pride, or command the 
respect of strangers. 

Our condition in these respects — the intelligence and morality of 
our native population ; the social condition of the nation — is such as 
to inspire every patriotic heart with an exultation infinitely loftier and 
purer than any boasts of riches or displays of strength. The right 
training of our citizens for their duties to God and the. State, has ever 
been a principal object of our government. It is true that the main 
regulation of this subject, and the direction of the chief expenditure 

*The statistics of the machinery employed in manufacturing — a very import- 
ant and significant item — although actually collected, are kept strangely concealed 
in the Census Office ; nor is there any adequate estimate, yet compiled, of the total 
machinery of all kinds owned and used in the United States. 



18 . A VOICE TO AMERICA. 

for it, rests in the States individually; yet the Federal Government 
alone, doing what it could constitutionally do, has given outright, for 
educational purposes, fifty-three millions of acres of land, which, > 
at the minimum Government price, are worth nearly millions 

of dollars. Of public funds alone, besides the much greater amount 
paid by individuals, there are paid for education annually, in the 
United States, at least seven and a half millions of dollars. There is 
no child so poor or vile as to be excluded from a good school educa- 
tion ; and if any children miss it, the fault is that of their parents or 
themselves. In our schools are taught, not only the rudiments of 
literature, but pure morals, and the elements of a just and manly char- 
acter. Entire freedom in tine and right thought is encouraged; 
and the result of our school systems, which are confessedly the best 
extant, is such as fully to uphold their claim to superiority. In those 
parts of the country where they have reached their completest devel- 
opment, only one native in four hundred is unable to read or write. 
In the far northern State of Maine, there are more children at school, 
in proportion to the population, than in any other state, kingdom, 
or country whatever. In the whole United Slates, the propoi 
of school-going youth is only exceeded by that in Denmark, where 
attendance is enforced by law. 

The tone of our national life throughout is such as to maintain the 
intelligent independence and self-controlling activity, which our citi- 
zens learn in their childhood. No policeman, or spy, or uniformed 
soldier prohibits our people from discussing the measures of govern- 
ment. We are not holden by force to follow the commands of hered- 
itary despots. We consider and inquire to our heart's content what 
we would have the government do, and then vigilantly watch its exe- 
cution. X" such broad political freedom was ever heard of be 
either in Greece or Rome, in Switzerland <>r England. The diffusion 
of current information, and of intercourse among our citizens, has in- 
»ed to a corresponding extent. The fecundity and ability of our 
newspaper press is withoul parallel. The best and brightest talent of 
the day is increasingly employed in this business. In 17 75, there were 



UNITED STATES — RETROSPECTIVE AND PROSPECTIVE. 19 

thirty-five newspapers in the whole country. That number is now 
more than equalled in each of four single towns, and in two of them 
it is tripled. In the whole country there are twenty-two hundred 
newspapers, circulating a hundred and fifty millions of copies annually ; 
and of periodicals of all kinds, more than twenty-seven hundred, cir- 
culating nearly four hundred and thirty millions of copies a year. A 
single American monthly circulates more copies than all the magazines 
of Great Britain together. Our Post-office Department, wdiich, upon 
its re-establishment after the Revolution, enumerated about seventy- 
five post-offices, along a few coast-routes of somre two thousand miles, 
upon which it was thought remarkable that the mail came through 
from New York to Philadelphia in three days, now numbers twenty- 
five thousand post-offices, and sends its mail-bags over two hundred 
and twenty thousand miles of roads. Seventy years since, steamboat 
speed was impossible ; and railroads were not even conceived of in 
dreams. Now our letters hurry along the water, in steamboats, at 
twenty miles an hour, and fly across the land, by railroad, at fifty 
miles an hour. But that is not enough for our restless people. It 
w T ill not do to wait for time, or to measure space. So forty-two 
thousand miles of telegraph bring Maine and Louisiana — New York 
and St. Louis, within moments of each other, for the merchants who 
cannot let their messages lag along on lightning trains. Nay, the 
intervening space of the Atlantic Ocean is to be annihilated. The 
wires are now r being prepared for the ocean line, between Newfound- 
land and Ireland ; and the unreasonable philosopher, Faraday, not 
content that messages will be delivered in New York three hours 
before they are dispatched at Liverpool, is grumbling in England 
because there is to be an actual delay of two minutes. 

The same keen and disciplined, but tremendous energy which has 
driven us so swiftly onward in our career of material prosperity, and 
which is vet surginor hither and thither across the continent in accu- 
mulating waves, has operated alike in all departments of human 
action. Not only have we excelled in the mere organization of 
human industry aud the gathering of riches, but Americans have 



20 A VOICE TO AMERK 

stood pre-eminent in every domain of original thought, in every 

sphere of labor, physical or mental. It would be. too long a si 
to enumerate the daring of our exploring seamen ; the exhaustless 
fertility and practical adaptedness of our myriads of inventors ; the 
triumphs of our mechanics, who have surpassed the world in making 
whatever can be made, that requires beauty, strength, or skilful hand- 
ling. Their enormous clippers dash through the billows of every 
sea, and their engineers go abroad to construct monster railroads for 
foreign powers. Their brass clocks tick within the households of 
every nation, from England to China ; their pistols are arming the 
officers and soldiers of all civilized troops. 

In science and literature, even more than in such conquests over 
the material world, has our career been rapid and. our attainment 
glorious. In all those departments of literary labor which are related 
to the present needs and future progress of humanity — in theology, 
ethics, law, politics, political economy, education, natural sciences, 
history, romance, poetry — we are at least fully abreast of the very 
foremost. 

Even in the fine arts, hitherto always the latest blossom of civiliza- 
tions which have been refining for centuries, we have risen up sud- 
denly to the highest position. Our sculptors and painters are rivalling 
the modern masters of artistic Italy, amidst the very shrines of the 
muses, and the homes of the arts. 

In all the realms of thought, both elegant and profound, we have 
tly surprised the elder nations out of supercilious contempt and 
thorough ignorance, into admiring acknowledgment. A quarter of a 
century ago, the assumption was coolly and currently made through- 
out Great Britain, that English writers were sure of the monopoly of 
arket for an indefinite period. Since English authors 

. • with pen, ink, and papei 
long I to support the n 

ufac 
granted thai ry worth i 

"We have changed all that." The works of Story and Kent, and 



UNITED STATES — RETROSPECTIVE AND PROSPECTIVE. 21 

in general our Reports of Decisions in Law, Equity, and Admiralty, 
are authority in English courts. Dwight and Edwards in Theology, 
Prescott and Bancroft in History, Sparks and Irving in Biography, 
are text-books on both sides the Atlantic. Within the last twenty 
years, more than one thousand editions of American books have been 
published in England, numbering at least six millions of copies, and 
six and a half millions of volumes. Single American books have cir- 
culated outside of the United States, in ten and twelve languages, in 
fifteen and twenty and twenty-five successive editions, to the amount 
of half a million, a million, and a million and a half of copies. 

" Who reads an American book ?" jeered Sydney Smith, a quarter 
of a century ago in the Edinburgh Review. The question of the 
clerical satirist must now be, to have any force — Who does not read 
American books ? 

Such statistics tell a proud story for our country. But it is not 
merely in science, philosophy, or elegant literature, that American 
thought is moulding the opinions of the world. Ever since the pub- 
lication of the Declaration of Independence our statesmen have been 
confessedly, for breadth and depth of thought, and for power of reason- 
ing, the ablest of the age. Were there three such men outside of the 
United States as Daniel Webster, Henry Clay, and John G. Calhoun ? 
Our public policy has put us at the head of the world's progress in 
international law. We have taken the lead in asserting a righteous 
equality among the great commonwealth of nations. We compelled 
England to discontinue kidnapping sailors by her piratical system of 
impressment ; we first stipulated by treaty not to allow of privateering 
in time of war; we have successfully asserted the principle "that free 
ships make free goods. Austria, at the imperative demand of our 
Executive, sulkily releases American citizens, imprisoned on suspicion. 
We first are moving to destroy the stingy monopoly, held by Denmark, 
of the entrance into the Baltic Sea. Is it not a conceded fact that the 
European nations, at the very farthest, cannot do better than to take a 
lesson in government from our Republic? Is it not our example 
which is stinging and goading the restive democrats of Europe into 



22 A VOICE TO AMERICA. 

their ate revolts and crushed, , but not conquei lutions? 

nave the despotic kings and emperors -of that Continent more than 
one thing to m ore than one ghost at their banquets ? 

They are haunted by American Freedom — if by naught else. 

Reformers and revolutionists, tyrants and their victims, alike look 
westward. Kossuth exhausts all the magic of his eloquence to engage 
us for his deai 1 , fallen Hungary ; Russia is our very good friend — for 
the time being — and would not grieve us for the world ; Englishmen 
look to our administrative forms for examples to be imitated by the 
imbecile red-tapists of Downing-street. Blackwood's Magazine at last 
admits that the truth of our-power and progress fully equals all the 
statements which have heretofore been considered " extravagant gas- 
conade ;" the Westminster Review terms our Republic "the pole-star 
to which the eye of struggling nations turns," and, in a long article, 
compares our effective and economical governmental methods with 
the expensive follies of Victoria's administration ; the Edinburgh Re- 
view, which has heretofore spoken so bitterly and scornfully, concedes 
the full reality of our physical prosperity, and our present success in 
literature and art, and foretells for us a splendid future in each and all. 

Hitherto, the energies of our republic have been expended in 
developing the immense resources of our extended territory. We 
have taken no position amongsl the nations; our name, in fact, was 
scarcely mentioned. But the Russian war has summoned us to Eu- 
rope ; American diplomacy has made monarchs thoughtful ; the 
United Slates have come to be regarded, not merely as a great 
nation, but as one to be courted and feared — a government capa- 
ble of arbitrating in the affairs of the Old World, whose public 
opinion is respected, and whose favorable decision is regarded as a 
great moral dy, Europeans give us the | o of 

ihis entire continent. They apply the term An&rican only to us. A 
Mexican, a Canadian even, is never, by them, called American; that 
name they consider ours alone. Europe, in fact, embraces the Mon- 
roe doctrine. Every month sees our influence increasing. Steam 
communication between the two continents has reached an unparal- 



UNITED STATES — RETROSPECTIVE AND PROSPECTIVE. 23 

Jelled perfection, and yet is insufficient to meet the demands of our 
business men. A fortnight, a week, a day, nay, an hour, is too long to 
obtain information — ere long, the submarine telegraph will put Amer- 
ica and Europe in momentary communication. All things tend to 
give our country an immense preponderance in European affairs — a 
preponderance which is now beginning to be felt, and is deprecated 
by the despots and tyrants of the Old World. 

Such have the United States been — such they are to-day. What 
they will be a century from this time, is a question which it is be- 
yond the power of human prescience to answer, except by estimate or 
conjecture. Of our future, some few elements may be considered ca- 
pable of reasonably reliable prophecy. That every ten years of our 
future growth will surpass any preceding ten, is proved by our prog- 
ress hitherto. The last decade of our physical and intellectual prog- 
ress shows an advance greater than that of the preceding twenty 
years, and greater than any other fifty years. For territory, within 
the coming century we may have the entire continent of North Amer- 
ica ; for population, we shall have one hundred millions of people, not 
of an effete and overgrown stock, like that hideous monster, the Chi- 
nese race, but a people of vigorous youth, foremost in the blessings of 
freedom, and still marching onward, in the pure light of civilization, 
towards the highest human development. 

The Anglo-American is the king of men. He possesses all the 
powerful and commanding nature of the Anglo-Saxon, the clear, cool 
head, the sober, calculating mind, the regard for law, the obstinate ad- 
herence to justice ; but fused and fired by the pure bright air of 
America, and yet more by the wide freedom of American life, into the 
go-ahead and tireless energy, which endures no delay and brooks no 
opposition. The Anglo-American is the controlling type, the leading 
element of our future population. 

America in 1950 promises to be, what the folly of the misproud 
Celestial so sillily calls his stolid people — the Central Nation. Al- 
ready we stretch forth our hands to Europe and to Asia, and con- 
trol the commerce of two oceans, and modify the politics of two 



24 A VOIl 

continents. Europe, inspired by- our example, already smoi 
groans in the rising ferment of revolutions. 'Y, the 

heretofore closed doors of distant Japan. American commerce and 
American civilization are striding inland, up A streams of the 

great Asiatic rivers and across her tremendous steppes. Even our 
missionaries among the heathen are driven by the logical results 
of Protestant Christianity to become founders of States and the 
noters of independent political action. The Christianized king- 
dom of the Sandwich Islands, was converted and liberalized by Pro- 
testant missionaries. A Christian civilization has gone from us to 
commence the work of enlightening Africa, and has made a firm 
lodgment within the small but public of Liberia. Our 

missionary stations among the North American Indians, in Turkey 
and Armenia, in China, have been the centres of a light which has 
illuminated first the souls and then the minds of the barbarians, and 
which is 'gradually transforming them into self-governing and dignified 
communities. We have joined the Atlantic and the Pacific by rail- 
road ; we shall repeat the junction by telegraph and by canal. Throned 
between two oceans, we shall control the mercantile exchanges of the 
world, and with them the civilization and the welfare of mankind. 
It is not for us to rule with the barbarous violence of conquest. It is 
not for us to force a prostrating commercial system upon tribu 
millions by war, to steal colonies everywhere, to speckle the world 
with our garrisons, and then to boast that the drum-beat of our army 
r greets the rising sun. 

For us there is a safer, a surer, a nobler road, to a more desirable 
and enduring empire. Our destiny is to show the nations what is the 
greatest amount of national and individual happiness and prosperity 
which is possible under laws free and enlightened, and with a people 
self-governed and self-controlling. In the qn unaggressive ful- 

filment of that destiny we wield the lever which shall n 
world. 

A free and lofty humanity, / means 

that is right— such is the man and his fur, which became 



UNITED STATES — RETROSPECTIVE AND PROSPECTIVE. 25 

practicable in our empire for the first time. That ideal life satisfies 
all aspirations. Men will conic to us to enjoy those privileges un- 
der our broad banner for a time, but, ere long, they will assert their 
right to enjoy them at home. Before a century has passed, the United 
States of America will stand peerless in strength and beauty, the pride 
and excellence of the whole earth ; the refuge of the oppressed ; the 
apostle of all truth ; the freest, noblest, happiest, purest among the 
nations ; the crown and culmination of human progress ; the full 
expression of human development, under the conditions of a national 
existence based upon the eternal truths of Christianity, — maintained 
by laws enacted by the wide consent of all, restricting not one hair's 
breadth the rightful activity or happiness of any — invigorated and 
intensified by the untrammelled play of those infinite powers which 
God has given to man, and which are as comprehensive as the uni- 
verse of matter and of thought in which he exists. 



THE ANCIENT REPUBLICS: 

A GLANCE AT EARLY CIVILIZATION. 

" Out of history we may gather a policy no less wise than eternal, by the comparison and applica- 
tion of other men's forepast miseries with our own like errors and ill-deservings." 

Sir Walter Raleigh. 

The records of past ages- are the inheritance of the present. They 
are a study fertile in interest and value. They form the great text- 
book, to which all make their appeal. It is in the classic ages we 
seek for the most splendid triumphs of art — the purest models — 
whether in sculpture or poetry, in philosophy, science, ethics, or law. 
We gaze, through the dim vista of centuries, with deep and solemn 
interest upon the ruins of those grand and colossal states and empires 
which successively swayed the destinies of the world — the Assyrian, 
the Egyptian, the Grecian, and Roman. We are not only amazed at 
their magnificence and splendor, but we are curious to know the 
secret sources of their rise, progress, and decay. It is thus that 
" history is philosophy teaching by example." 

The Germans, who are distinguished for their love of antiquarian 
research, yet fail, with all their zeal and perseverance, to derive all 
the advantages of which the study is susceptible. Their deductions, 
Coleridge compares to the stern-lights of a ship, illuminating merely 
the past ; the true uses of history — its warnings and teachings — are 
comparatively forgotten. May not every government read, in the 
experience of the ancients, its dangers, its destiny, and its duties? 
And especially to every republican government, are not the fall of 
the classic republics, and the sanguinary revolutions of France, full 
of admonitory interest ? Let us extract the moral which the eventful 
story of the free States of antiquity suggests. A vast amount of labor 



28 A VOICE TO AMERICA. 

and learned research has Leon expended upon the history of the 

is written or known con- 
cerning their social economy, which formed the great moral lever of 
society. We propose to take a brief survey of the causes which 
superinduced the overthrow of these renowned States. We shall 
avail ourselves of the best recorded testimony, and the best judg- 
ments of historians and political economists. If it be an admitted 
maxim of liberal government, that the safety and happiness of the 
whole community is the true and only end of all government ; and if 
this is the basis of the republican form, and the converse of it, the 
despotic — who among us is not fired with a generous enthusiasm as 
he pores over the details of the heroic virtues, and lingers over the 
philosophic maxims of the sages of antiquity ? "Who does not glory 
in their brilliant though brief successes, or watch, with the sympathy 
of suffering friends, their decline and fall ? The world is on the side of 
liberty, and the history of its progressive development comprehends 
the history of the race. The advocate of freedom is, therefore, the 
friend of humanity. But it must not be forgotten that between true 

rty and unbridled license, there exists as wide a distinction 
between virtue and vice. The latter is the bane of the former; ; 
have ever been antagonistic in their influences. 

A mysterious system of causes has crystallized society into cycl 
in each of which some particular idea has becom ot prin- 

. These cycles arc illustrated by the early idolaters of Canaan, 
who ir Iconoclast in Abraham ; by the sophists of Athens, and 

their Aristophanes; those of Rome, with their Lucian ; the knights- 
errant of modern Europe, with Cervantes; the religious bigots of the 
century, with their polemical and philosophical scril 
ridge ob bat "the Jewish theocracy was itself but a mean 

i" a further and greater ! that the e ' the poli 

dinated to an interest far mor< 

lom or commonwealth could be." L : 
political, has also had its con and 



THE ANCIENT REPUBLICS. 29 

the history of its heroic progress is filled with illustrious names and 
deeds — Pericles, Cicero, and Caesar; Tell, Wallace, and Washington; 
Cromwell, Mirabeau, and Napoleon. These were, in the language of 
an old dramatist, the planets of the ages in which they lived, and 
illustrate their times. It was for her sacred cause that the ever- 
memorable events of Thermopylaj, of the Punic wars, of Marston 
Moor, and the American war of Independence were enacted, — the 
last named of which has this proud distinction : that it is guiltless of 
wantonly shedding the blood of the innocent ; and was triumphant 
alike over tyranny and despotism, and the lawless passions of victors. 
Taking a bird's-eye view of history, we see CaBsar, the pagan, prepar- 
ing the way for Christianity ; Charlemagne, the barbarian, for civili- 
zation ; and Napoleon, the despot, for liberty — yet presenting the 
anomalous character of the popular patron of aristocratic al power. 

The study of history is one of political and social progress. In 
the earliest ages, society was in a crude, chaotic condition, equally 
removed from the luxuries and refinements, as well as the amenities 
and courtesies which characterize it in modern times. We discover 
the germ of popular or republican power in Greece and Rome. 
There was yet wanting in these republican States the great essential 
of free institutions — self-government. The intellectual force of Gre- 
eian character kept in check the revolutionary tendency of the fickle 
populace, while in Rome the intellectual refinement of Greece tended 
rather to emasculate than invigorate the body politic. The histories 
of these States — Greece and Rome — are, therefore, those of our in- 
structors in the arts and sciences,— guides in literature and patterns 
of intellectual excellence, rather than the models of political or social 
ethics. The history of the medieeval ages — which forms the connect- 
ing link between the remote past and the present— although com- 
paratively barren of instructive teaching, is necessarily replete with 
interest, being that of our more immediate ancestors, from whom we 
have derived our language, laws, and customs. The feudal system of 
the Middle Ages, with all that may be justly urged against it, for its 
severe exactions upon popular freedom, was yet a necessity of the 



30 A VOICE TO AMERICA. 

times, while it superinduced a love of heroism, patriotism, and virtue; 
A romantic interest invests that long period of the world's eclipse; 
for although the populace surrendered themselves to the thraldom of 
superstition and ignorance, it was the proud era of Papal pomp and 
magnificence, — of gorgeous cathedrals, splendid pageants, cloistered 
learning, and the chivalrous exploits of the knights-errant. Society, 
however, was in servile subjection. Two classes — lords, or feudal 
barons, with their vassals, or serfs — constituted its great distinctions. 
Feudalism accomplished nothing for popular progress. Amidst the 
brilliant constellation of genius which at length dispelled the linger- 
ing darkness, came forth the great spirits of Liberty. Then came 
the great revolutionary eras of modern times — the English, the 
French, and the American. These tended, in each instance, to de- 
termine the true sources of power, and to reveal the long-hidden 
truth, that freedom is the birthright of the race. It was the Ameri- 
can "Declaration of Independence" which gave the full solution of the 
problem, and assigned it a place in the common heart. It was that 
modem " Magna Charta" which conferred upon the model republic of 
the nineteenth century the full immunities and privileges of freemen.* 
The great religious revolution originating with Luther and his 

* " It is as a great, solemn political act, that it demands our highest veneration. 
What had the world ever seen that was equal, that approached to it? Go to 
antiquity— to Greece, to Rome— travel over Fran./.'. Spain, Germany, and the 
whole of modern continental Europe, —all was comparative gloom; political sci- 
ence had not risen. Go to the isles of the sea— to Britain, then the freest of 
nations; and Englishmen would proudly point you to their Magna Charta, as 
their most valuable birthright, and the greatest bulwark of liberty which any 
nation had raised. It was so. And yet how does it dwindle in contrast with 
©ur Declaration of Independence, which was a greater era in the history of 
mankind, than Magna Charta was in the histor 'and! The latter was a 

concession, extorted by armed barons from their - a. It was w! 

(.■ailed a charter from the kn fountain of all right and power, lie was 

their lord and master — the ultimate owner of all the soil in tho kingdom; and 
this was a gra I, it is true, bu! still a grant— -fro and favor, 

allowing the exercise oi ights to his bu nting to some 

limits to his royal prerogative. 

" The former is not a grant of privil ion of a Bing?e nation; it is 



THE AXCIENT REPUBLICS. 31 

coadjutors, however, gave to the world the first grand impulse towards 
freedom, by bursting the shackles of ignorance and superstition. Up 
to the middle of the seventeenth century, the nations of Europe were 
at a low state of civilization. A new era then dawned upon mankind, 
by the discovery of the Western continent ; and there the spirit of 
religious and civil liberty found its temple and its home. There Lib- 
erty had a most bold and adventurous priesthood — men of heroism 
and virtue, the pioneer-missionaries of the cross. 

"The Puiitans were men whose minds had derived a peculiar 
character from the daily contemplation of superior beings and eternal 
interests. Not content with acknowledging, in general terms, an over- 
ruling Providence, they habitually ascribed every event to the will of 
the Great Being, for whose power nothing was too vast, for whose 
inspection nothing was too minute. To know him, to serve him, to 
enjoy him, was with them the great end of existence. They rejected 
with contempt the ceremonious homage which other sects substituted 
for the pure worship of the soul. Instead of «atching occasional 
glimpses of the Deity through an obscuring veil, they aspired to 
gaze full on the intolerable brightness, and to commune with him 
face to nice. Hence originated their contempt for terrestrial distinc- 
tions. The difference between the greatest and meanest of mankind 
seemed to vanish, when compared w T ith the boundless interval which 
separated the whole race from him on whom their own eyes were 
constantly fixed. They recognized no title to superiority but his 
favor ; and, confident of that favor, they despised all the accomplish- 
ments and all the dignities of the world. If they were unacquainted 

a declaration, ly a whole people, of what before existed, and will always exist— 
the native equality of the human race, as the true foundation of all political, of 
all human institutions. It was an assertion that we held our rights, as we hold 
our existence, by no charter, except from the King of kings. It vindicated the 
dignity of our nature. It rested upon this 'one inextinguisbabl-e truth, which 
never has been, and never can be wholly eradicated from the human heart, 
placed as it is in the very core and centre of it by its Maker : that man was not 
made, the property of man ; that human power is a trust for human benefit, 
and that when it is abused, resistance becomes justice and duty.' "Sprague. 



32 A VOICE TO AMERICA. 

with the works of philosophers and poets, they were deeply read in 
the oracles of God. If their nai e not found in the i 

of heralds, they felt assured that they were recorded in the Book of 
Life. If their steps were not accompanied by a splendid train of 
ials, legions of ministering angels had charge over them. Their 
palaces were houses not made with hands ; their diadems crowns of 
glory which should never fade away ! On the rich and the eloquent, 
on nobles and priests, they looked down with contempt ; for they 
esteemed themselves rich in a more precious treasure, and eloquent 
in a more sublime language, — nobles by the right of an earlier crea- 
tion, and priests by the imposition of a mightier hand. The very 
meanest of them was a being to whose fate a mysterious and terrible 
importance belonged ; on whose slightest action the spirits of light 
and darkness looked with anxious interest ; who had been destined, 
before heaven and earth were created, to enjoy a felicity which should 
continue when heaven and earth should have passed away. Events 
which short-sighted politicians ascribed to earthly causes, had been 
ordained on his account. For his sake, empires had risen, and flour- 
ished, and decayed. For his sake, the Almighty had proclaimed his 
will, by the pen of the evangelist and the harp of the prophet, lie 
had been rescued by no common deliverer from the grasp of no com- 
mon foe. He had been ransomed by the sweat of no vulgar agony — 
by the blood of no earthly sacrifice. It was for him that the 
had been darkened, that the rocks had been rent, that the dead had 
all nature had shuddered at the sufferings of her expiring 
God! 

" Thus the Puritau was made up of two different men — the one 
at, penitence, gratitude, ] ; the other proud, calm, 

aous. lie pr< If in the dust before his 

: but he ' foot on king. In his devo- 

tional ]■■ '. he prayed villi convul ' -, and I 

He was hah ible illusions. lie h 

the lyres of . or the :• . He caught 

a gleam of the Beatific Vision, or wok aing from dreams of 



THE ANCIENT REPUBLICS. S3 

everlasting- fire. Like Vane, lie thought himself intrusted with the 
sceptre of the millennial year. Like Fleetwood, he cried, in the bit- 
terness of his soul, that God had hid his face from him. But, when 
he took his seat in the council, or girt on his sword of war, these 
tempestuous workings of the soul had left no perceptible trace behind 
them. People who saw nothing of the godly, but their uncouth 
ses, and heard nothing from them but their groans and their 
whining- hymns, might laugh at them. But those had little reason 
to laugh who encountered them in the hall of debate, or in the field 
of battle. These fanatics brought to civil and military affairs a cool- 
ness of judgment, and an immutability of purpose, which some 
writers have thought inconsistent with their religious zeal, but which 
were in fact the necessary effects of it. The intensity of their feel- 
ings on one subject made them tranquil in every other. One over- 
powering sentiment had subjected to itself pity and hatred, ambition 
and fear. Death had lost its terrors, and pleasure its charms. They 
had their smiles and their tears, their raptures and their sorrows, but 
not for things of this world. Enthusiasm had made them Stoics, 
had cleared their minds from every vulgar passion and prejudice, and 
raised them above the influence of danger and of corruption. It 
sometimes might lead them to pursue unwise ends, but never to 
choose unwise means. They went through the world like Sir Ar- 
tegle's iron man Talus with his flail, crushing and trampling down 
oppressors — mingling with human beings, but having neither part 
nor lot in human infirmities ; insensible to fatigue, to pleasure, and to 
pain ; not to be pierced by any weapon, not to be withstood by any 
barrier. 

" Such we believe to have been the character of tire Puritans. We 
perceive the absurdity of their manners. We dislike the sullen gloom 
of their domestic habits. We acknowledge that the tone of their 
minds was often injured by straining after things too high for mortal 
reach ; and we know that, in spite of their hatred of Popery, they 
too often fell into the worst vices of that bad system — intolerance 
and extravagant austerity ; that they had their anchorites and their 



34 A VOICE TO AMERICA. 

crusades, their Dunstans and their De Montforts, their Dominies and 
their Escobars. Yet, when all circumstances are taken into con- 
sideration, Ave do not hesitate to pronounce them a brave, a wise, an 
honest, and a useful body."* 

But we ask — Where are the free nations of antiquity 3 

"Gone, glimmering through the dream of things that were, 
A school-boy's tale, the wonder of an hour." 

It has been said that no civilized nation has, at any period of its 
history, so completely thrown off its allegiance to the past, as the 
American. The whole essay of our national life and legislation has 
been a prolonged protest against the dominion of antiquity. This 
disregard of ancient precedent is quite consistent with the intrepid 
daring and sagacious policy of the revered founders of our national 
institutions. It would be impossible to institute any analogy between 
the governments of the ancient publics and our own ; yet we should 
be willing to profit by the voices of antiquity — be warned by its errors, 
and incited and sustained by its virtuous examples. 

* Macaulay. 



SPARTA AND ATHENS. 

" Unrivalled Greece ! where every power benign 
Conspired to blow the flower of human kind." 

Thomson. 

" The taste, love, and intuition of the Beautiful stamped the Greeks above all nations." 

Bulwer's Athens. 

Greece, with her matchless schools of learning and philosophy, 
her arts and civilization, lustrous with the triumphs and trophies of 
her splendor, has for twenty centuries ceased to exist, save in the im- 
perishable monuments of her intellectual glory and a few broken col- 
umns of her once superb temples, her Parthenon, some of the beauti- 
ful creations of Phidias, as well as the classic Vale of Tempe, the rug- 
ged defiles of Thermopylae, and the towering heights of Areopagus. 
"We naturally ask whence did this mighty people derive the elements 
of their greatness ? Some, by a fanciful conceit, have suggested that 
it was in part superinduced by the influences of climate and the sce- 
nery by which they were surrounded ; that the physical geography 
of Greece — a combination of sea and mountains — served to make 
it the cradle of a bold and free people ; or, as Wordsworth apostro- 
phizes it — 

" Two voices are there: one is of the sea, 

One of the mountains : each a mighty voice. 

In both from age to age thou didst rejoice : 

They are thy chosen music — Liberty." 

Such a theory is, however, manifestly untenable, as the abortive at- 
tempt, in modern times, to resuscitate Athens sufficiently attests. 

" 'Tis Greece, but living Greece no more ! 
So coldly sweet, so deadly fair, — 
We start, for soul is wanting there !''* 

Leaving the solution of the problem with the ingenuity of the curious 

* Byron. 



36 A VOICE TO AMERICA. 

in such speculative mutters, we shall probably content the reader 
by a rapid survey of the geographical limits of the Hellenic Si 
together with au outline sketch of their ri 

Greece, bounded on the north by the Cambuman mountains, which 
separate it from Macedonia, on the south and east by the ./Egsean, on 
the west by the Ionian sea, extended two hundred and twenty geo- 
graphical miles in length by one hundred and forty in breadth. In 
its salubrity of climate, variety and fertility of soil, it possessed ad- 
vantages unequalled by any other country of similar extent. Situated 
in the vicinity of the three quarters of the world, on three sides wash- 
ed by the sea, and abounding with commodious ports and harbors, 
its advantages for commerce and navigation were scarcely less con- 
spicuous. It was divided into Northern Greece, comprehending 
Thessaly and Epirus ; Central Greece or Hellas, which included At- 
tica with its Marathon, Megares, Bceotia with its Thebes, Platoea, and 
Chseronea ; and the southern peninsula, or -Peloponnesus, containing 
Arcadia, Achaia with its twelve cities, and Laconia with its Sparta. 
Its jurisdiction also extended to groups of islands adjacent in the 
Ionian and iEgcean seas, as well as more extensive separate islands. 

Greece was originally peopled by several insignificant races of 
barbarians : among them two principal tribes claim our notice — the 
Pelasgi and the Hellenes. These were of Asiatic origin, but of dif- 
ferent dialects. The Pelasgians settled in the Peloponnesus about 
1800 B. C. Although rude in their origin, they are supposed to 
have made some advances towards civilization, since they founded 
the ancient states Argos and Sicyon ; and to them are attribu 
those Tnarvellous monuments termed Cyclopian. They spread to- 
wards the north, founded Attica, made settlements in Thessaly, and 
existed as a people for one hundred and fi 

The IIell< : >sequently so called from Ilellen, one of their 

ftains — originally thi r of the two tribes, made their first 

appearance in Phocis, near Parnassus, under i>ei: after- 

wards invad d from tl and sub- 

vaiious 



SPARTA AND ATHENS. 37 

branches of the Hellenic tribe over Greece was effected by several 
migrations ; after which they preserved the settlements they had al- 
ready obtained, until the later migration of the Dorians and Herac- 
lidae, about 1100 B. C. 

Besides these original inhabitants, colonies at the same early period 
came into Greece from civilized countries, — from Egypt, Phoenicia, 
and Mysia. Much of their early attainments in domestic civilization 
is to be traced to these foreign sources, as well as their mythological 
and religious rites and observances. These, however, became in 
their adoption less Egyptian, Asiatic, or Thracian than Grecian. To 
their religious system, in part, is to be ascribed their progress towards 
polished refinement. The ancient minstrels or bards contributed to 
this end, by their dissemination of moral and religious sentiment, 
diverting them from a love of barbarous warfare to the advantages 
of civilized life. The oracles of Delphi, Dodona, and Olympia were 
no less powerful to the same end. The necessity of consulting these 
sanctuaries naturally led men to regard the oracles as the common 
property of the nation ; and thus these various tribes, who had been 
hitherto strangers, met in peace ; and hence arose spontaneously the 
first idea of a commonwealth and a confederacy. 

It was at Delphi that the most important and the most protracted 
of these political reunions — that of the Amphyctions — occurred. It 
adopted the principle that none or the cities belonging to the league 
should be destroyed by the others. We now discover the germ of 
the chivalric spirit of the nation, and the development of its youthful 
vigor in the heroic ages. A love of daring adventure and heroic 
exploit, not only individually but also in confederate bodies, led them 
beyond the limits of their fatherland. These emprises of valor being 
rehearsed by their bards, they thus acquired a national poesy such 
as no other people possessed, and such as contributed to the fuller 
development of the national genius. At this juncture, when the 
combined Hellenic nations were ripe for some grand military expedi- 
tion, came the memorable siege of Troy. The most important result 
of that war was the kindling of one common national spirit — a spirit 

3 



38 A VOICE TO AMERICA. 

which even survived all the domestic feuds and animosities. This expe- 
dition, which lasted ten years, and was crowned with such signal suc- 
cess, caused the Hellenes to regard themselves ever after as one 

The Trojan war was quickly followed by tempestuous times, — 
internal strifes, and incursions from the ruder tribes of the North, 
shook Greece during an entire century. The Dorians with their allies 
strove to possess themselves of Peloponnesus, and, after repeated at- 
tempts, at length the Heraclidae succeeded in revolutionizing the 
Hellenic States. The territories of Argos, Sparta, Messene, and Cor- 
inth were wrested from the Achseans, who had hitherto inhabited 
them. The Achaeans expelled, in their turn, the Ionians, and form- 
ed the settlement called Achaia ; while the fugitive Ionians were 
received by their former kinsmen, the Athenians. 

But among the consequences of this migration of the Hellenic races 
must be reckoned likewise the establishment of Greek colonies in Asia 
Minor — an occurrence of the highest import to their national develop- 
ment. This colonization, commenced by the JEolian Hellenes, was 
soon followed by the Ionians, and even the Dorians. Among the 
effects of these migrations and wars was not only an interruption to 
the progress of civilization, but even almost entirely the annihilation 
of it; yet in this universal movement the foundation was laid of that 
constitution of things which afterwards existed in Greece.* The 
tribes which had migrated, as well as those which had been expelled, 
remained at first under the dominion of their hereditary princes, some 
for a longer, others for a shorter period. In the two centuries, how- 
ever, immediately subsequent to the migrations (B. C. 1100-900) 
republican constitutions took the place of hereditary clanship in all 
the Grecian countries, the distant Epirus excepted. These republics 
continued to exist amid the various revolutions which happened, and 
the love of political freedom : from this time the national senti- 

ment. In this i, ituted order of things, city with the 

territory around it formed a i sparate tate, and framed its own con- 
stitution; hence tliei as many 1V« - .ties. Although 

* Eeeren's Researches. 



SPARTA AND ATHENS. 39 

thus parcelled out into a number of petty states, there existed a cer- 
tain unity among the Hellenic race, a certain national spirit : this was 
produced in part by their custom of attending the national festivals 
and games ; and this union was further promoted by the Amphic- 
tyonic council, from which originated Grecian ideas of international 
and judicial law. Even at this early period Sparta and Athens be- 
came distinguished for their superior constitutions and laws. 1; 
two cities in fact constitute a leading essential in subsequent Grecian 
history. We now approach a revolutionary era in the government 
of Sparta. The Achseans were previously governed by princes of the 
house of Perseus; the royal power was now divided between the 
families of Procles and Eurysthenes. Soon the Dorians acquired the 
conquest of many of the cities of the peninsula, and the Achseans be- 
came for a time their bondsmen. The Spartans, however, ultimately 
usurped authority over the whole country, which they continued to 
retain. The records of the two following centuries, to the time of 
Lycurgus, are filled with a series of belligerent engagements on the 
part of the Spartans with their neighbors, the Argives. Lycurgus 
gave to Sparta about the year 800 that constitution to which she 
was principally indebted for her subsequent splendor. His laws were 
not written, but conveyed in apophthegms, which were confirmed by 
the oracle of Delphi. The principal object of the laws of Lycurgus 
was to insure the existence of Sparta, by creating and supporting a 
vigorous and uncorrupted race of men. His grand maxim was, " that 
children were the property of the State, to which alone their educa- 
tion was to be intrusted." 

With the view of equalizing the two extremes of great wealth and 
great indigence, he divided the lands into equal lots, proportioned to 
the number of the inhabitants. This partition of the territory met 
with violent opposition from the opulent, as might have been expected ; 
but such was the commanding influence of this great man, that he tri- 
umphed over all opposition. He also appointed public tables, at winch 
all citizens were enjoined to eat together without distinction. The diet 
was simple, and each had to contribute his quota for the repast. On 



40 A VOICE TO AMERICA. 

these occasions of public feasting, the conversation was restricted to 
topics wholly of an instructive kind. Xenophon observes, " they 
were schools not only of temperance and sobriety, but also for in- 
struction." Soon after the time of Lycurgus, the Spartans increased 
greatly their territory by their wars with the Messenians ; and al- 
though a long interval elapsed before the former made any further 
attempts at invasion, yet on the deposition of Demaratus, Cleomenes, 
his former colleague, was compelled to bear a part in the Persian 
war. That struggle, together with the idea of supremacy in Greece, 
which had now taken its rise, introduced a series of political rela- 
tions before unknown/'"' 

It was at this epoch that the seeds of strife were sown between the 
rival republics of Sparta and Athens. 

The history of Athens during this period, observes Heeren, is ren- 
dered important rather by domestic revolutions, which gradually 
tended to convert the State into a republic, than by external aggran- 
dizement. The situation and peculiarities of Attica, rendering it less 
exposed than other parts of Greece to the attacks of wandering 
hordes, favored the tranquil growth of national prosperity. The 
history of Athens, as a State, begins properly with Theseus (temp. 
1300 B.C.) ; although certain institutions, such as that of the Areo- 
pagus the division of the people into nobles, husbandmen, and me- 
chanics, may be traced to the colony of Cecrops. The hist king was 
Codrus, who by a voluntary sacrifice of his life rescued Attica from 
the inroads of the Dorians, in 1068. The period of the Archons 
lasted till the year V52 B. C. From that time until 682 no remark- 
able events occurred, except the internal commotions which were 
occasioned by the oppressive exactions of the aristocratic party. 
From this stale of anarchy Alliens was rescued by Solon; a man to 
whom not only Athens, but the whole human race, are deeply in- 
debted, lie effected the happiness of his country, by remodelling 
the constitution of the State. 

Solon not only aimed to invest the administration o'l government 

i !■ ren's Researches. 



SPAETA AND ATHENS, 41 

with the best intelligence and prudence of which he could avail 
himself ; but his code for private life was no less deserving commen- 
dation. Unlike Lycurgus, he regarded polity as subordinate to 
morals. Yet the reader need not be reminded, that the social condi- 
tion of Greece, as compared with that of the modern ages, had little, 
indeed, to boast. Plato, Socrates, and other eminent philosophers and 
sages, not only tolerated, but were even the avowed apologists of 
polygamy, and its train of vices. The legislation of Solon was soon 
disturbed by the factious tyranny of Pisistratus, who obtained by 
force of arms the government of Athens. This- usurpation was again 
succeeded by the return of Alcmaeonidse, who, aided by a Spartan 
army, took possession of the city in 510. This resulted in a modi- 
fication of the Constitution. Clisthenes, with a view of quenching 
party spirit by a new combination of the citizens, increased their 
elective powers. 

A struggle with the Spartans and the allies, who sought to re- 
establish monarchy in Attica, soon ensued ; and yet the glorious suc- 
cess of the republic, in this her first effort in the cause of liberty, 
gave fresh impulse to the national spirit. It was that which induced 
Athens to unite with the Asiatic Greeks in the cause of freedom, 
and which provoked the vengeance of the Persians ; and yet, but for 
that daring encounter, Greece would probably never have achieved 
that greatness and renown which have signalized her in the history of 
the world. 

It is, perhaps, sufficient for our purpose thus to sketch the outline 
history of Sparta and Athens — the two most important of the Grecian 
States ; the others being of subordinate interest. Greece derives 
her importance among the nations of antiquity, not only from her bril- 
liant successes in arms, her love of art and letters, and her liberal in- 
stitutions, but also from her numerous colonies. These spread along the 
shores of the Mediterranean and the Black seas. The history of early 
civilization, therefore, owes much to the efforts of Greece, for she 
carried her influence east and west, far and wide. This gives us the 
clue to the sources of her opulence, supremacy, and splendor. These 



42 A VOICE TO AMERICA. 

colonies, numbering over a hundred, had each its own peculiar form 
of government, — showing a wonderful variety of political views among 
3 people. "Of the Greek colonies, the most ancient, and in 
many respects the most important, were those along the western coast 
of Asia Minor, extending from the Hellespont to the boundary of 
Cilicia. Here, ever since the Trojan Avar, which first made t : . 
countries generally known, the .JSolians, Ionians, and Dorians had 
planted settlements. These were the most important for trade. Here 
likewise, in the native country of Homer, the father of Grecian civil- 
ization, of Alcaeus, and of Sappho, poesy, Loth epic and lyric, ex- 
panded her first and fairest blossoms ; and hence, too, the Mother 
Country herself received the first impulse of moral and cultivated 
is."* 
When almost all the Grecian States and colonies submitted to the 
Persian yoke, Sparta and Athens alone boldly resisted it. The ever- 
memorable battle of Marathon proved not only the superiority of 
Athenian heroism, but was also the preservation of Grecian liberty. 
After the fall of Miltiades, the history of Athens becomes that of emi- 
nent generals or demagogues : Themistocles and Aristides were the 
real founders of the power of the Commonwealth. The former, in suc- 
cessfully accomplishing what Miltiades failed to achieve, made Athens 
also a mighty maritime power. "While the rival State was thus ad- 
vancing in power, Sparta suffered from the insanity of one of her 
kings, Gleomenes, and the arrogance of another, Leotychides, To 
Themistocles belongs the glory of frustrating the second Persian in- 
vasion of Greece, under Xerxes. However weak might have been 
the national leagues, separately, — being bound together by common 
interests and animated by the controlling spirit of the Grecian de- 
liverer, they were irresistible. The great naval victory of Salamis 
does not reflect greater glory upon the Greek did the gallant 

action of Leonidas with his throe hundred Spark he plan 

for the conduct of tJ ragements originated with Themistocles, 

the pre-eminent merit of their sn to be alone ascribed to his 

* li. ' Ancient R< 



SPARTA AND ATHENS. 43 

statesmanship and military skill. Further successes by the battles of 
Platasa on the land, and of Mycale at sea, ending in the destruction 
of the Persian fleet, expelled forever from the shores of Greece that 
mighty foe. 

Sparta at this time acquired a temporary ascendency, yet soon the 
command was transferred to Athens ; and not only was this the oc- 
casion of jealousy between these States, but it also had a decided 
influence on all the subsequent relations of Greece. Then follows 
about half a century of eminent prosperity to Athens : far different 
was it with Sparta ; there rude customs and laws arrested the develop- 
ment of genius ; there men were taught to die for their country, 
while in Athens they learned to live for it. The loss of Themistocles 
was supplied by Cimon, who protracted the war against the Persians 
in order to maintain the union of the States ; while the death of 
Aristides and the banishment by ostracism of Cimon, concurred in 
elevating Pericles to the head of affairs, who for forty years swayed 
Athens, without either being archon or member of the Areopagus. 
His administration was evidently of the democratic character, as that 
of his predecessor was that of the aristocratic. 

The idea of a perfect equality among the Grecian States is proved 
to have been chimerical, since the minor independencies were 
swayed by the more powerful ; and even between these 1 — Sparta and 
Athens — an almost uninterrupted strife for supremacy existed. Sparta 
was now doomed to be abased before the great Theban general, 
Epaminondas. In her distress, Sparta formed an alliance with Athens ; 
while Thebes entered into a compact with Persia. A sanguinary 
struggle between Sparta and Thebes left Greece but an independence 
proceeding from enervation ; yet at the veiy time of the growing- 
power of Macedonia under Philip, she madly plunged into another 
devastating civil war of ten years' duration, known as the Phocian 
war. " The treasures of Delphi circulating in Greece, were as inju- 
rious to the country as the ravages which it underwent. A war 
springing out of private passions, fostered by bribes and subsidiary 
troops, and terminated by the interference of foreign powers, was 



44: A VOICE TO AMERICA. 

exactly -what was requisite for annihilating the scanty remains of mo- 
rality and patriotism still existing in Greece."* 

The very first advance of Philip was a premonition of the fate of 
Greece, although the eloquence of Demosthenes warded it off until 
the second invasion. 'The battle of Chaeronea was the commence- 
ment of the Macedonian ascendency over the Grecian republics. 
The history of Greece, from the accession of Alexander of Macedon 
until the final subjection to the Roman power, it is scarcely necessary 
to detail. At the decease of Alexander, Sparta had been humiliated 
by defeat ; while Athens remained the first State in Greece. Fre- 
quent revolutions, civil commotions, and State intrigues and crime.-, 
mark her declining career. While Greece was thus passing into her 
decadence, Roman strategy and Roman valor were striving for the 
transfer of the supremacy. Rome, taking advantage of the disorder 
caused by the frequent factions and feuds which occurred between 
the Achreans and Sparta, or Messene, conquered Macedonia ; and at 
the sack of Corinth, the light of Grecian freedom finally vanished. 

Of all the great nations of antiquity, none, perhaps, boasts of such 
a rapid and brilliant career as Greece ; and her decline was as strangely 
sudden. It may well be asked, whence came the efflorescence of 
Grecian mind in the age of Pericles ? What was the element of 
power that caused a handful of Greeks to overmaster the proud chiv- 
alry of the Persians ? what the mighty spell which made the Hel- 
lenic arms the terror of the surrounding nations, — and won such 
brilliant triumphs at Marathon, Salamis, and Platsea, as to fill all 
Greece with the exultant shouts of Liberty, and blazon the scroll of 
history with the records of heroic glory ? Yet was her triumph as 
brief as it was brilliant. In a single generation, Grecian Liberty 
reached its culmination, and in another century, its overthrow. The 
conflicting and diversified character of Grecian society suggests a 
clue. Hers was a social amalgam : all the gradations of wealth and 
poverty, as well as liberty ami oppression, were among its elements. 
Hence feud and faction, as well as military despotism, were among 

* Heoren. 



SPARTA AND ATHENS. 45 

the disturbing causes of the public weal. It has been eloquently- 
said, that Attic wisdom, Theban hardihood, and Spartan valor, could 
not combine to save her ; that very army which Greece had bred 
and nourished, to reduce oriental pride, was turned, vulture-like, upon 
herself. Thus Greece, with her battlements and towers, her glorious 
triumphs in arts and arms, is hurled headlong from her giddy height, 
— a parricide, — at once the shame and pity of the world ! 

' ; "When Greece with Greece, 
Erobroil'd with foul contention, fought no more 
For common glory and for common weal ; 
But false to freedom, sought to quell the fire, 
Broke the firm hand of peace and sacred love 
That lent the whole irrefragable force, 
And as around the partial trophy blushed, 
Prepared the way for total overthrow."* 

The Commonwealths of Greece were generally the scenes of popu- 
lar commotion, — the tyranny of one part ofVthe people over the other, 
or of usurping demagogues over the whole. Pericles, the noblest, 
perhaps, of his class the world has ever seen, was yet a demagogue. 
He sacrificed the last conservative institution of Athens for the 
advancement of his own political power, — the dictatorship. " It 
cannot be denied that the Athenian democracy abused its absolutism, 
and that the Athenian State made an unjust use of its supremacy 
over the allies ; and thus viewed, there is some truth in the assertion 
of Isocrates, that the dominion of the sea was the source of all the 
misery of Athens and Greece. But it is not fair to confine our views 
to the abuse : what form of government, or what State, ever effected 
so much in the same space of time for humanity, as Athens and its 
democracy, during the brief period of their meridian glory ? Peri- 
cles, Phidias, Polygnotus, Sophocles, Socrates, Plato, Demosthenes, 
were the children of the democracy ; and truly great must the public 
spirit of that nation have been, which could foster, encourage, and 
develop the genius capable of achieving their mighty deeds." f 

* Thomson. + Taylor's Nat. Hist, of Society. 

3* 



46 A VOICE TO AMERICA. 

Although the age of Pericles was the age of glory to Greece, yet 
it was then, as Pliny remarks, that Greece lost her freedom ; for then 
she lost her virtue, and with it her love of art. Shall we not heed 
the admonitory leaching of an eminent classic historian,* when he 
affirms that the occasion of the Peloponnesian war — the direst civil 
calamity that betel Greece — was the alleged mutual rupture of the 
thirty years' league between Athens and Lacedaemon ; but that the 
true cause was, the jealousy of the latter at the growing superiority 
of Athens. Intestine feuds are the most implacable and deadly in 
their influence and effects, and therefore most sedulously to be guarded 
against in a confederacy of free States. A spirit of rivalry or jeal- 
ousy, resulting from differences of opinion and local interest, are 
among the evils to which they are exposed. The vaulting ambition 
of Pericles for territorial acquisitions, is an illustration of this. 

AYebster, referring to Greece, observes : " Political science seems 
never to have extended to their contemplation of a system, which 
should be adequate to the government of a great nation upon princi- 
ples of liberty. They were accustomed only to the contemplation of 
small republics, and were led to consider an augmented population as 
incompatible with free institutions." They sought to eject systems of 
more perfect civil liberty, but the light of the moral and mental * 
world of their time was not to be compared with that when our fore- 
fathers did the same. 

The Peloponnesian war was succeeded by those protracted disasters 
and civil commotions which tended to reduce and exhaust the < ; iv 
and to destroy that bond of union once the palladium of their strength 
and glory. It was at this crisis that Philip of Macedon, taking ad- 
vantage of their disorder, made himself master of all Greece, by his 
conquesl at i Jhaeronea. 

Grecian history has been presented in three aspects: that of The- 
mistocles, in which the Btatesman was subordinate to the general; 
that of Pericles, in which the general was subordinate to the states- 
man; and that of Demosthenes, in which the statesman acted inde- 

*Thucvdides. 



SPAETA AND ATHENS. 47 

pendently of the general. The first is distinguished by its love of 
military glory ; the last, by its marvellous displays of Grecian elo- 
quence — for it was the age of the ten famous Athenian orators: 

"Those ancients, whose resistless eloquence 
"Wielded at will that fierce democracy, 
Shook the arsenal, and fulmined over Greece 
To Macedon and Artaxerxes' throne."* 

The golden age of Grecian heroism, art, and eloquence, was from 
the era of Solon to that of Alexander. From the reign of Alexander 
to the extinction of taste in design and excellence in execution, not a 
single name is recorded worthy of note, as meriting comparison with 
the masters of the Grecian republic. The same applies with equal 
force to the Augustan age of Eome. Homer's great epic w#as de- 
signed to exhibit the ill effects of division in a confederate power. 
Virgil, on the contrary, flattered the oppressor of his country's liberty, 
in his adulation of Augustus. 

It is evident, therefore, that political liberty may consist with the 
culture of the arts. Even the rugged Spartans delighted, for a time, 
to embody and perpetuate their heroic achievements, by the chisel of 
Bathycles ; and the sacred inclosure of Amyclas is no less memorable 
as the depository of the earliest creations of Grecian sculpture. 

It has been said there are few who, if asked in which of the States 
of antiquity they would choose their own lot to have been cast, would 
not name Athens — since nowhere was there so much good, because 
nowhere was there so much freedom. Yet that freedom was con- 
stantly jeopardized, both by oligarchical conspirators, and by the 
tyranny of the sovereign people. The glories of Marathon and Sala- 
mis are obscured when we remember that the same victories which 
rescued the Athenian freeman but riveted the fetters of the Athenian 
bondsman. These two factions destroyed her greatest man, Socrates. 
The altar of Athenian liberty is overthrown, and its ashes poured out, 
because it burnt with alien fires. Grecian polity differed from that of 

* Milton. 



A VOICE TO AMERICA. 

our own times. It was far less expansive and comprehensive, pertain- 
ing "merely to cities, rather than States or territories. "We possess 
little in common with the politics of the ancient free States. Their 
circumstances were widely dissimilar to ours, while theirs was a pagan 
and ours a Christian faith. Nor can the virtues or the vices of their 
age excite any other than a philosophic interest. Yet, allowing for 
this difference of circumstances and condition, there is exhibited 
much that is suggestive and admonitory to be gleaned for the ad- 
vantage of modern times. 

Chenevix observes: "It was in Greece that mankind began the 
new career which had a much greater affinity to true civilization 
than any condition of society that could have been previously con- 
ceived. It would be unjust to say that Asia, though luxurious, was 
not civilized ; but the characteristics of civilization in that continent 
were so weak as to give but little tincture to the general mind. In 
Greece, the best mode of social progress became predominant, and 
may be traced in even' province of thought, as sensuality gave place 
to intellect, and men found that the powers and faculties of each 
might be useful to the whole community." The great conservative 
principle or characteristic of civilization, as opposed to luxury, is 
combination, — the conviction that more may be obtained by unity of 
design and concert of action, than by the divided wills of multitudes, 
however numerous. He continues : " The difficulties which the Greeks 
had to overcome sufficiently taught this lesson, and turned their social 
career into the path of true civilization. It was thus that they be- 
came the parents of European advancement, and that the legacies 
which they have bequeathed remain at this day among its richest 
treasures. 

"Since the independence of the United States, the North Ameri- 
cans principally followed the path which had been traced out by their 
British forefathers; and they were induced to continue in it because 
they had many difficulties t<> oppose. But those difficulties, ;;< in 
ancient Greece, bespoke abundance more than poverty; and promi 
such easy fertility and greatness, that it may be questioned, notwith- 



SPARTA AND ATHENS. 49 

standing the remembrance of past examples, whether civilization or 
luxury will finally predominate. But this much may safely be con- 
jectured : Should the social improvement of the United States termi- 
nate in luxury, their luxury, like their vanity, will be much more 
European than Asiatic."* 

Another authority remarks that history abounds in proofs that 
almost all the good which nations have possessed is to be attributed 
to social progress ; nearly all the evil, to luxury. " It was by the cor- 
ruption of civilization and the ascendency of luxury, that the fall of 
Greece was caused, — that the armies which had triumphed under the 
banners of intellect, were defeated when summoned away from their 
pleasures. It was because the influence of Lycurgus over the small 
republic of his birth had banished from it all the means of sensuality, 
that the power of Sparta, her domestic tranquillity, her good order 
and virtues, lasted from the time of her lawgiver till the Ach£ean 
league ; that, during five centuries, she was paramount in Greece, by 
her abstinence. It was immediately following the Periclean age — 
which was that of Grecian luxury — that her moral decline com- 
menced, in the age of Philip, or corruption, when her fall was com- 
pleted. By civilization she made conquests ; by her luxury she was 
herself overthrown." 

Bancroft observes : " The democracy of Athens, with all the imper- 
fections in every part of its public sendee, with the abuses attending 
its finances, and the corruption which finally turned the elective fran- 
chise into a source of personal revenue, maintains its dignity in the 
eyes of the world ; for there the elements of civil liberty were first 
called into action. ISTo tongue can adequately praise many of the 
results of that State ; and it would also be difficult to display the de- 
ficiencies in its organization, and the gross injustice of its foreign 
policy. Our own confederacy does not more surpass the Grecian in 
the extent of territory over which its liberties are diffused, than in the 
excellence of the details of its laws." 

The admirable maxim of Isocrates is worthy the attention of mod- 

* Chenevix on Nat. Char., 1832. 



50 A VOICE TO AMERICA. 

ern times, because it requires, as the foundation of national prosperity 
and obedience to law, the establishment of the religious principle, as 
the surest guaran both. His advice to Demonicus respecting a 

citizen was : " First exeri towards God, not only in sacrifices, 

but also in the preservation of oaths ; for the former indeed may be 
an indication of abundant wealth, but the latter is a proof of integrity 
of character." The growing influence and contending interests of 
political parties in their struggles for ascendency, may superinduce 
the corruptions and treacheries which tarnish our national glory and 
jeopardize our national stability ; and thus we are in danger of re- 
enacting the political immoralities and crimes of the ancient repub- 
lics — repeating the history and calamities of those splendid yet 
mournful examples of the past. The prerogatives of the Federal 
government must be maintained inviolate — the majesty of its author- 
ity supreme. In the multiplication of its constituent States there is 
great tendency to a reduction of the central constitutional power. In 
the desire for increasing territorial acquisitions, and a thirst for mili- 
tary renown, the harmony of the confederacy may also be fatally dis- 
turbed, and anarchy usurp its place. An instance of this we have 
seen in the history of the Grecian republics. Severe and onerous 
military services were sustained by the Avarlike and heroic citizens of 
those ancient States, in consequence of this fostering, by the govern- 
ment, of an excessive desire for military power and conquest A 
military despot is surely no friend to national or civil liberty: and 
wherever the demagogue can take advantage of such social disorder, 
he is sure to do so. It may be well to repeat the warning given to 
us in the brilliant but terrible example of Athens, — it teaches us 
that an insatiate lust of territory marks the overthrow of a free 
State. 

A.ccording to the political creed of Aristotle, the Grecian State was 
antecedent to the individual citizen. Be therefore p qo inhe- 

rent personal rights, and was only allowed such immunities as were 
conferred by the State itself Our commonwealth acknowledges an 
opposite rule. T->oth extremes are equally fatal to the liberties of a 



SPARTA AN T D ATHENS. 51 

democracy; the one tending to an oligarchy, the other to lawless 
despotism. 

Bulwer remarks : " As in despotisms, a coarse and sensual luxury, 
once established, rots away the vigor and manhood of a conquering 
people, so in this intellectual people (the Athenians) it was the luxury 
of the intellect which gradually enervated the great spirit of the 
victor race of Marathon and Salamis, and called up generations of 
eloquent talkers and philosophical dreamers from the earlier age of 
active freemen, restless adventurers, and hardy warriors. The spirit 
of poetry, or the pampered indulgence of certain faculties to the 
prejudice of others, produced in a whole people what it never fails 
to produce in the individual : it unfitted them— just as they grew up 
into manhood exposed to severer struggles than their youth had un- 
dergone — for the stern and practical demands of life ; and suffered 
thfi love of the Beautiful to subjugate or soften away the common 
knowledge of the Useful. Genius itself became a disease, and Poetry 
assisted towards the euthanasia of the Athenians." 

The fundamental essentials to the security of a free State, are reli- 
gion, virtue, and intelligence in its individual citizens. This is the 
palladium of her strength, and the augury of her greatness and glory. 
These three great weapons of our strength will form the surest bul- 
wark of our defence against the evils which may menace our national 
security, arising from the incessant influx of foreign immigration and 
foreign political influence. Before the vestal purity and celestial light 
of virtue, the shades of ignorance, superstition, infidelity, and crime 
will flee away. With the true light of Divine revelation for our 
o-uide, and the ample experiences of the past for our instruction, we 
may, and we assuredly ought to present to the world, not a mere 
problematical experiment, but an accredited and actual illustration of 
the great fact of a mighty nation of self-governed freemen— a specta- 
cle " grander, vaster, and more majestic than any thing ancient states- 
men ever dreamed of." Is such a brilliant immortality to be conferred 
upon these United States ? 

With the lapse of centuries, the lustre of Grecian intellect has 



52 A VOICE TO AMERICA. 

lost none of its splendor. It still towers in Olympian grandeur over 
all the boasted achievements of intervening ages. Her proud tro- 
phies have defied the assaults of time ; and, whether in sculpture, 
eloquence, or in song — in military prowess, heroic virtue, or in her 
love of liberty — her name has ever been a watchword on the earth. 
Not only was Greece the home of the graces, but it was here that 
Freedom first erected her mountain-throne. It was the triumph of 
mind that gave the pre-eminent glory to Greece ; and Greece was the 
glory of the earth. What a galaxy of great men she gave to the 
world — Pericles, Epaminondas, Socrates, Aristotle, Demosthenes, Ho- 
mer, Plato, and Alexander — Titans among the race ! What a wealth 
of learning have they bequeathed to mankind ! Classic Greece was 
the great academy of science and song — our storehouse of philosophy, 
ethics, poetry, sculpture, aesthetics, and architecture, as well as civili- 
zation and refinement. She was the first of the nations of antiquity 
to assert the supremacy of intellectual empire. It is not surprising, 
therefore, that her very name should have become talismanic, and 
that her sages, philosophers, and poets should still be regarded as our 
models, and their wisdom deemed oracular. Poetry still recognizes 
her great high priest in Homer, Philosophy her Socrates, History her 
Thucydides, Eloquence her Demosthenes, Art her Phidias, Justice her 
Aristides, and Heroism her Leonidas. While, therefore, we do hom- 
age to Attic models in art, poetry, ethics, and philosophy, shall we 
neglect the warning which her political errors and immoralities sug- 
gest ? 



THL FALL OF ROME. 

1 Alas 1 the lofty city ! and alas 1 
The trebly hundred triumphs." 

Childe Harold. 

The seven-hilled city of the Csesars — once the capital of the 
world, — the most potent and the most opulent of the nations of 
antiquity, — with her august pageants, her gorgeous temples, her 
triumphal arches, her Coliseum, her Forum, and all her colossal 
achievements in arts and arms, is numbered with the past. All that 
remains of her eminent glory, is a splendid ruin — a mighty and 
majestie shrine, attracting pilgrim feet from all parts of the earth. 
Her towering greatness, with her almost superhuman virtues and 
crimes, lives only on the scroll of history — a sublime illustration of 
human power and human weakness. Of all the voices of the past, 
Rome's eventful story is the most marvellous, the most memorable, 
and the most eloquent. 

" Rome ! thine imperial brow 

K~ever shall rise. 
What hast thou left thee now ? 

Thou hast thy skies ! 
Thou hast the sunset's glow, 

Rome ! for thy dower — 
Flashing, tall cypress bow, 

Temple and tower !" 

The history of Rome exhibits a strange compound of conflicting 
elements of human character. It abounds with instances of the 
generous and the heroic, — the cruel and the base, — the patriotic and 
the perfidious. Hers were the extremes of wealth and poverty — of 



54 A VOICE TO AMERICA. 

ignorance and learning. Rome was the scene of the direst calami- 
ties and the most brilliant triumphs. At one time devastated by a 
fearful plague, which continued for more than two years, destroying, 
in a single day, some two thousand human beings; at another, the 
city was in great part consumed by fire, kindled by lightning, — while 
these calamities were followed by famine. The history of her gov- 
ernment is, for the most part, one of despotic cruelty, strategy, and 
crime — most of her rulers being corrupt and treacherous ; yet were 
there among them men of heroic and noble virtue. 

The topography of Rome may be thus briefly described : Situate 
on the bank of the Tiber (about seventeen miles from the sea, and 
near its junction with the Arno), the city was built on seven hills, or 
insulated heights, divided by little valleys. These hills are the Capi- 
toline, Palatine, Ccelius, and Aventine. The others (Quirinal, Yiini- 
nal, and Esquiline) are promontories, jutting out towards the Tiber. 
The Capitoline being so precipitous that it formed a natural fortress, 
it became the citadel of Rome. 

A reference to the map of Italy will, best exhibit its physical 
geographv. It will be seen that, like Greece, Italy is made up of 
numerous valleys, pent up between high hills, each forming a country 
and political community to itself. There is the Apennine range,, 
stretching from the southern extremity of the Alps across Italy, to 
the edge of the Adriatic, thus separating Italy proper from Cisalpine 
Gaul. Between them and the Alpine semicircle which forms the 
northern boundary, is inclosed a wide plain, open only on the east to 
the sea. One great river flows through its whole extent, being fed, 
from the north and south, by numberless streams. Of course, this 
well-watered plain was filled with flourishing cities, and often con- 
tended for by successive invaders. The geographical features of [taly 
proper strikingly accord with its political divisions, "it \^not one 
simple ridge of mountains, leaving a broad bell I country on 

either side, but, as it were, a backbone, thickly set with diverging 
ies of unequal length, running <>ut from the main ridge, some 
parallel to the backbone itself; in which latter case, the interval be- 



THE FALL OF ROME. 55 

tween their base and the Mediterranean has been broken up by vol- 
canic agency ; e. (/., Vesuvius, and the Alban Hills, ten miles from 
Rome."* We thus perceive the force of the remark of Napoleon, 
that Rome was the spot best suited to be the capital of its empire. 

The early history of Rome, like that of Athens, is based upon 
tradition, made up in part of poetic fiction. The line of demarcation 
between what is mythical and purely historic truth, it is difficult to 
determine. This is, however, less essential to our purpose, since we 
have to do with the later times of the Republic. During the first 
two centuries or more subsequent to its foundation, the city of Rome 
was under the rule of governors, or kings, of limited power and pre- 
rogatives. Its constitution originally somewhat resembled that of 
England about the times of the three first Edwards. The governing 
body consisted of the three classes or tribes, divided into thirty curiae, 
ten in each tribe. Their assembly was called Comitia Curiata. 
Besides this general body of citizens, there was a select council, 
called the Senate, originally comprised of one hundred chief mom of 
the Ramnes. After the union of the Sabines, one hundred of the 
Titienses were admitted ; and though the Luceres always had votes 
in the general Comitia, yet they had no representatives in the Senate 
till the time of Tarquinius Priscus, who added a third hundred, called 
Patres Minarum Gentium. The reign of this monarch is the Etruscan 
period of Roman history. The buildings above and under ground, 
the religion, the games then introduced, have all of them an Etruscan 
stamp. The next king, the sixth, was Servius Tullius, who belonged 
neither to a royal nor patrician family, and who promoted Latin 
and Grecian customs. He revised the constitution, having brought 
together, in some degree, the Populus and the Plebs, and made all of 
them vote according to their property, in classes and centuries. The 
last king was Tarquinius Superbus, who, with his family, was ban- 
ished ; and with him ended the monarchy, having lasted, according 
to the legends, two hundred and twenty-five years. Then followed 
the establishment of the Republic, at the head of which were two 

* Arnold. 



5G A VOICE TO AMERICA. 

consuls — L. Junius Brutus and Tarquinius Collatinus. The consular 
government was annually elected. 

The struggle for liberty, in which the new Republic was engaged 
with the Etrusci and Latins, contributed to arouse that republican 
spirit which subsequently became the main feature of Roman char- 
acter. The party which had deposed the ruling family, now took 
wholly into their own hands the helm of state ; and the oppression of 
these aristocrats became at length so galling, that, after the lapse of a 
few years, it gave rise to a sedition of the Plebs, — the consequence of 
which was the establishment of annually elected Presidents of the 
People (Ti'ihuni Plebis). Just previous to this (temp. 508 B. C), 
took place the first commercial treaty with Carthage, in which Rome 
appears as a free State, although not as yet sovereign of all Latium. 
The political constitution of Rome received further development in 
the contests which now arose between the popular presidents and the 
hereditary nobility. The Tribunes, instead of confining themselves to 
the* defence of the people from the oppression of the nobles, soon 
began to act as aggressors, which subsequently resulted in a com- 
plete equalization of rights. An illustration of this state of things 
is afforded by the trial of Goriolanus. 

The more equitable distribution of the lands obtained by conquest, 
among the poorer classes, was suggested by the ambitious attempts of 
Cassius. The well-known code of the "Twelve Tables" confirmed the 
ancient institutions, and was in part completed by the adoption of 
the laws of the Greek Republics, especially those of Athens. Yet, as 
the commissioners appointed to draw up the laws were exclusively 
Patricians, an occasion was given for usurpation, which could be frus- 
trated only by a sedition of the people By the laws of the "Twelve 
Tables," the legal relations of the citizi us were the same for all; yet 
that code contained little or nothing in relation to any peculiar con- 
stitution of the State, while the government no! only remained in the 
hands of the aristocracy, who were in possession of all offices, but 
the prohibition of marriage, according to the new laws, of Patricians 
and Plebeians, interposed an insurmountable barrier between the two 



THE FALL OF ROME. 57 

classes. The consequence of this was, renewed attacks by the people 
upon the privileged Patricians, especially as the power of the popular 
leaders was now not only renewed, but even augmented — the only 
limit to their authority being their unanimity of decision. 

New dissensions arose between the Patricians and Plebeians, one 
of the causes of which was the exclusive participation of the former 
in the consulship, of which the Tribunes demanded the abolition. 
This right of admission was not, however, extended to the Plebeians 
till after a struggle annually renewed for eighty years. Meanwhile, 
Rome was engaged in petty wars with the neighboring federate cities. 
These contests continued almost uninterruptedly, and arose out of the 
oppression, real or imaginary, which she practised upon them. The 
cities sought every occasion for asserting their independence ; and 
the consequent struggles must have depopulated Rome, had not that 
evil been diverted by the policy of increasing the complement of 
citizens in admitting the fi'eedmen, and not unfrequently even the 
conquered, to the enjoyment of civic privileges.* Little as these 
feuds, abstractedly considered, deserve attention, they become of high 
interest, inasmuch as they were not only the means by which the 
nation was trained to war, but they also led to the foundation of 
that senatorial power, whose important consequences will be exhibited 
hereafter. 

The last of these wars was that against Veii, the richest city in 
Etruria. The siege of that place, which lasted nearly ten years 
(404-395 B. C), gave rise to the introduction, among the Roman 
military, of winter campaigning, and of pay. Thus, on the one 
hand, the prosecution of wars more distant and protracted became 
possible ; while, on the other, the consequences were, increased taxa- 
tion. About this time, Rome was reduced to ashes by the Gauls, 
wdio pressed out of Northern Italy through Etruria, and possessed 
themselves of the city, the Capitol only excepted. One of the chief 
heroes of this period was Camillus, the deliverer of Rome, who laid 
a double claim to the gratitude of his native city, b/*overruling, after 

* Ileeren. 



58 A VOICE TO AMEBIC 

his victory, the proposal of a general migration to Veii. Scarcely 
was Rome rebuilt, ere the former feuds revived, springing out of the 
poverty pf the people, induced by the oppressive military taxation. 
Licinius, the Tribune, at this juncture having decreed that no indi- 
vidual should hold more than a certain amount of the national lands, 
the people became eligible equally with the nobles to the office of 
consul. The dictatorship, censorship, proctorship, and even the priest- 
hood, quickly followed, as a matter of course. Thus political equality 
was conferred upon the Plebeians, with the Patricians ; and the differ- 
ences between them ceased, for a time, to form opposiug political 
parties. 

We now approach the true heroic age of Rome. This was intro- 
duced by the Samnite war — an engagement far more important than 
any in which Rome had previously been involved. In former con- 
tests her object had been to sustain her supremacy over her immedi- 
ate neighbors ; but in these latter wars, which continued for half a 
century, she opened a way for the subjugation of Italy, and laid the 
foundation of her future greatness. In this period commenced the 
practical illustration of the leading ideas of Piome upon the political 
relations in which she placed the States and cities she subdued . m 
After the subjection of the Samnites, Rome, wishing to confirm her 
dominion in lower Italy, became entangled in war with the Taren- 
tincs, who secured the alliance with Pyrrhus. Jn the first two battles 
with this foreign prince, Rome was unsuccessful. In a subsequent 
engagement at Beneventum, he was defeated, and compelled to evac- 
uate Italy, leaving a garrison at Tareutum. That city soon afterwards 
fell into the hands of the Romans, whose dominion became thereby 
extended to the extremity of lower Italy. 

The early expedient of Roman colonization served the double pur- 
pose of relieving the capital of its pauper population, and of peopling 
her captured cities, as well as forming garrisons. This colonial - 
tein took its rise in the Samnite war, and ultimately embraced the 
whole of Italy. Connected with it was the construction of military 
highways, of which the Via Aj>jna, constructed B.C. 312, was one, 



THE FALL OF ROME. 59 

and which, to this day, remains the lasting monument of Roman 
greatness. These colonies were not invested with the privileges of 
Roman citizenship ; they possessed their own civic government, hut 
had no share in either the Comitia or magistracies of Rome. They 
were obliged, however, to furnish tribute and auxiliary troops, and 
were in other respects amenable to the Roman prefects or magis- 
trates. 

The constitution of Rome was at first essentially democratic, in- 
asmuch as it conferred an equality of rights and immunities both for 
the poor and the opulent. It was yet a democracy so modified by 
ingeniously contrived expedients, that, even considering the warlike 
character of the people, it seemed well defended against the evils of 
military despotism on the one part, and popular discord on the other. 
Without specifying in detail its various features, it may suffice to 
state that it produced a senate, which at this epoch was the first 
political body in the world. It is remarkable that the constitution 
was in great part the result of experiment, no complete charter hav- 
ing ever been written. 

The memorable war which took place between Rome and Carthage, 
and which lasted twenty-three years (B. C. 264-241), although it cost 
her much, was the first step in her splendid series of triumphs. Con- 
sidering its important consequences, with the great heroes enlisted on 
both sides, as well as the vastness of the struggle, an interest attaches 
to it, surpassing that of any other age. The occupation of Messina 
by the Romans gave rise to this war ; it resulted in driving the Car- 
thaginians from Sicily. Thus the conquest of Carthage gave its 
pre-eminence to Rome. No monument of Carthage — the stupen- 
dous rival of the Romans — now remains to point out the ancient 
splendor of that Republic. That city, originally founded by a Ty- 
rian colony about eight centuries prior to the Christian era, became 
the capital of a powerful Republic, which continued upwards of 
seven centuries ; during which time it controlled the commerce of 
the world. Her interval of peace, which lasted seventy years, was 
the epoch of her glory — she was then the most renowned of the inde- 



60 A VOICE TO AMERICA. 

pendent States of antiquity ; but die love of conquest was the pro- 
curing cause of her ultimate overthrow. 

When the Carthaginians resolved to have provinces instead of 
factories, and garrisons instead of colonies, a large force became ne- 
cessary in order to keep possession of the conquered lands. From 
the time that a nation of merchants becomes a nation of princes, and 
exchanges commercial pursuits for territorial possessions, it abandons 
its proper strength for alien weakness, and fixes the limits of its own 
duration. The spirit of party and faction scarcely appeared in Car- 
thage, until after the Republic had yielded to the trial of conquest, 
and the passion for territorial aggrandizement. The strength of Car- 
thage in the war with Rome depended merely on its mercenaries 
and its money : it was founded on sand and gold-dust ; when the 
tide of fortune turned, both were swept away. There were, how- 
ever, other elements of social demoralization among the Carthagi- 
nians, which tended in no small degree to their overthrow. Their 
religion allowed the horrid rites of Moloch : they attempted to pro- 
pitiate their deities by human sacrifices. The immolation of infants 
was carried to a fearful extent, even by their infatuated mothers. 
To a flagrant and undisguised disregard of female honor has been 
ascribed this frequency of infanticide/'-' 

The conquest of Carthage inspired the Romans with arrogance, 
and although, ostensibly, her constitution remained unchanged, 
by it the power of the Senate acquired an undue preponderance. 
An illustration of this was seen ftf her invasion of Sardinia, in the 
midst of peace. Rome's maritime power was also extended in the 
Adriatic, and at the same time she formed her first political relations 
with the Grecian States. In the mean time Carthage was endeavor- 
ing to atone for the loss of Sicily and Sardinia, by extending her 
Spanish dominions. Rome at this time numbered, in all Italy, an 
army of eight hundred thousand men. While Hannibal, who had 
the command in Spain, was meditating a descent upon Rome, the 
preparations she made for defence show that it was not believed 

* Dr. Cooke Taylor. 



THE FALL OF ROME. 61 

possible that lie could execute his enterprise by the route which 
he took. 

The results of this war were, the destruction of the naval power 
of the Carthaginians, and, notwithstanding her immense loss, a 
great increase of the territorial dominion of Rome. Rome now pre- 
sented the fearful spectacle of a great military Republic. Flushed 
with the brilliancy of her achievements, she became a nation of 
warriors, and to this cause may be ascribed her aspirations after 
the dominion of the world. It demanded the most dexterous and 
sagacious policy on the part of Rome to frustrate the powerful 
alliances formed against her. The Roman Senate at this epoch 
usurped almost unlimited control — despotic and oligarchical — and yet 
it was the embodiment of the highest political wisdom. Notwith- 
standing the remonstrance of the Tribunes, war was declared against 
Philip of Macedon. The Roman arms were led to conquest in the 
east, by T. Quintius Flaminius. He gained his victory mffre by 
strategy than by feats of arms. As he had already gained over 
the Achaean league,, this brought Greece into a state of dependence 
upon Rome. A system of espionage was carried on by Rome, 
not only in the West, but also in the East, over Greece. The fall 
of Carthage and Macedonia sufficiently exemplifies the political 
rapacity of Rome. 

The ambassadors or Roman commissioners were skilful in diplo- 
macy and intrigue. By an artful policy, Rome procured the ban- 
ishment of her most formidable foe, Hannibal, from Carthage, and 
thus prevented his projected league with Syria and Macedonia. A 
contest then arose between Rome and Antiochus, who, at the bat- 
tle of Magnesia, w r as compelled to accept conditions of peace, and 
which reduced him to a state of dependence. 

Within ten years, Rome had laid the foundation of her sway in 
the East, and she soon became sovereign arbitress of the world from 
the Adriatic to the Euphrates. The internal condition of Rome had 
now become grossly immoral, and her political system no less cor- 
rupt. Venality and perfidy obtained the mastery, and with reck- 

4 



62 A VOICE TO AMERICA. 

less disregard of honor, she devastated all the States that opposed the 
way to her universal dominion. 

The civil broils under the Gracchi, to " the first use of power 
which the emperors made," Mr. Merivale observes, " was to control 
the fiscal tyranny of the proconsuls and publicani. The revolution 
of Drusus and the Gracchi opened the spoils of the world to the 
Italians ; but those of Julius and Octavius closed them again, and 
restored them to their rightful owners. The luxuriance of Roman 
oppression flourished but for a century and a half; but in that time 
it created, perhaps, the most extensive and searching misery the 
world has ever seen. The establishment of imperial despotism 
placed in the main an effective control over these petty tyrants ; and 
notwithstanding all the crimes by which it won its way, and the 
corruptions which were developed in its progress, it deserves to be 
regarded, at least in this important particular, as one of the greatest 
blessings vouchsafed to the human race." 

Sallust forcibly remarks that the Roman manners were precipi- 
tated at once to the depth of corruption, after the manner of a 
resistless torrent. The era from which the rapid degeneracy is to 
be dated, was the destruction of Carthage ; yet, it cannot be doubt- 
ed that the atheistical tenets attributed to Epicurus, tended in no 
small decree to accelerate the subversion of Roman virtue and Ro- 
man liberty. A firm belief in the Divine superintendence of affairs 
is the true guarantee of public and private virtue as well as of lib- 
erty. It was Atheism that slew a million and a half of people dur- 
ing the first French Revolution. It was not Voltaire alone who 
blighted all France with the curse of infidelity ; France had pre- 
viously ignored the Sabbath, desecrated her temples, and banished 
her priesthood. It is evident from the lessons of all history, that 
the Supreme Governor of the world holds nations as well as individ- 
uals to a strict moral accountability. 

The historical student, in comparing the Athenian Republic with 
the Roman, will at once perceive the characteristic differences of the 
races. The polished Greek preferred the polite arts of life, while the 



THE FALL OF ROME. 63 

sturdy Roman yielded to the instinct of his nature in love of mar- 
tial exploits. With the former, genius and learning were the cyno- 
sure; with the latter, the ensanguined trophies of war. Except 
during the age of the Republic, the records of Roman history boast 
of few illustrious names in literature. It was then that public vir- 
tue was sustained by public education ; it was then that the heroic 
fame of the Roman matrons passed into a proverb. No wonder that 
rhetoric and poetry should then have attained such rare excellence ; 
or that the populace even should have been fired with emulation of 
literary distinction ; or that Sallust, and Caesar, Cicero, Lucretius, 
Virgil, Horace, and Livy, became the master spirits of the age. It 
will be also remembered that the laws of the " Twelve Tables" of the 
Decemvirs or ten Commissioners, were the product of the Repub- 
lican intellect of Rome. 

Though the temples of Rome are in ruins, these " Tables," which 
Cicero declared, " contained more wisdom than the libraries of all 
the Philosophers," are preserved intact, through the lapse of twenty 
centuries, • since they form the basis of the law and the jurispru- 
dence of the civilized world. 

The fate of the Republic seemed now to depend upon the success 
of her Liberator — the elder Gracchus. In his effort to establish a 
yeomanry — the last expedient for reconciling the ceaseless discords 
between the politicians and plebeians — he became the victim of the 
brutal fury of the former. ' ; The election day for tribunes was in 
mid-summer ; the few husbandmen, the only shadow of a Roman 
yeomanry, were busy in the field, gathering their crops, and failed 
to come to the support of their champion. He was left to rest his 
defence on the rabble of the city, and though early in the morning 
great crowds of the people gathered together, and though, as Grac- 
chus appeared in the forum, a shout of joy rent the skies, which was 
redoubled as he ascended the steps of the Capitol, yet when the pa- 
tricians, determined at every hazard to defeat the assembly, came 
with the whole weight of their adherents in a mass, the timid flock, 
yielding to the sentiment of awe rather than of cowardice, fled like 



64 A VOICE TO AMERICA. 

sheep before wolves, and left their defender, the incomparable Tibe- 
rius, to be beaten to death by the clubs of senators. Three hundred 
of his most faithful friends were left lifeless in the market-place. In 
the fury of triumphant passion, the corpse of the tribune was dragged 
through the streets, and thrown into the Tiber."* The deluded no- 
bles nattered themselves into a belief that they had accomplished a 
victory ; that the senate had routed the people, but it was the aveng- 
ing spirit of their fearful wrongs, that had struck the first deadly 
wound into the bosom of Rome. The blood of their victim, like that 
of other martyrs, but cemented his party. A succession of fearful in- 
surrections ensued, and the soldiers of the Republic became the cap- 
tives of- their bondsmen, whose numbers had prodigiously increased. 

Such were the horrors of this civil war in Sicily and Italy, that it 
is said a million of lives were sacrificed, and that Sicily suffered more 
from its devastations than during the Carthaginian war. Two evils 
seemed to have resulted, unbridled license among the wealthy, and 
the most degrading servitude of the bondsmen. It was now that Ro- 
man citizens, by their own vote, consented to the degradation of be- 
coming paupers, their extreme poverty requiring that they should be 
fed from the public table. Discarding the pursuits of agriculture and 
the industrial arts, the public treasury had to be supplied by plunder 
of foreign countries, and thus Roman virtue and Roman valor were 
exchanged for ] ud pillage. At this crisis the demagogue 

Marius became the chieftain of the oppressed poor. The streets of 
Rome and the fields of Italy again became the scenes of massacre, 
and the oppressed bondsmen witnessed the fearful destruction of their 
oppressors. 

They triumphed over Sylla, the leader of the opposite party, who, to 
>e, conferred freedom upon ten thousand of their number. 
The subsequent insurrection of Spartacus failed, however, of its pro- 
posed result, for, when in sight of tin- Alps, the immense emigration, 
which had already defeated the armies of four Roman generals, fell a 
snare to its lust of plunder, and was thus overthrown. The defeat of 

* Bancroft's Miscellanies. 



THE FALL OF ROME. 65 

Spartacus took place at a moment when the Roman state was in jeo- 
pardy from foreign enemies, and from the fiercest domestic distrac- 
tions. It was then that the haughty tyranny of her nobles w T as at its 
greatest height, and when the degradation of its industrial classes was 
most insupportable. It was at this juncture, when the last glimmer- 
ing light of liberty had vanished, that the dark reign of despotism 
began. 

Thus we see that oriental luxury was the parent, first of civil, then 
of political despotism, and the train of its vices appear to us through 
the lapse of time, in all their monstrous deformity. The reign of Ro- 
man luxury was gigantic in crime, for it would sacrifice ten thousand 
gladiators w T ith as much unconcern as the Spaniards exhibit at a 
bull-fight. 

" Despotism now became the government of the Roman empire. 
Yet there was such a validity even in the forms of liberty, that 
they were still in some degree preserved. Two centuries passed 
away, before the last vestiges of Republican simplicity disappeared, 
and the Eastern diadem was introduced with the slavish customs of 
the East. Up to the reign of Diocletian, a diadem had never been 
endured in Europe. Hardly had this emblem of servility become 
tolerated, when language also began to be corrupted ; and, within the 
course of another century, the austere purity of the Greek and Roman 
tono-ue, the lanomao-es of Demosthenes and of Gracchus, became for 
the first time familiarized to the forms of oriental adulation. Your 
imperial highness, your grace, your excellency, your immensity, your 
honor, your majesty, then became first current in the European world ; 
men grew ashamed of a plain name, and one person could not ad- 
dress another without following the customs of the Syrians, and call- 
ing him rabbi, master."* 

Previously, Roman citizenship constituted by far the smallest por- 
tion of her inhabitants. Her dependencies and allies were treated, 
with very slight exceptions, as aliens, who were denied the right of 
voting, &c. Herein consisted her safety, and her deviation from the 

* Bancroft's Miscellanies. 



6Q A VOICE TO AMERICA. 

rule is proved to have been fraught -with ruin. The same cause will 
ever insure like results. 

" The universal record of history teaches that all republics which 
have risen and fallen, owe their destruction to foreign influence — un- 
seen at first, — permitted till too strong for resistance, — at last fatal."* 

During the greatest successes of Ccesar, just after his defeat of 
Pompey at Pharsalia, the Senate was crowded with aliens and soldiers, 
instead of Roman citizens. Michelet remarks, the victory of Caesar 
bore all the character of an incursion of barbarians into Rome, and 
into the Senate. In the commencement of the civil war, he had 
given the right of the city to all the Gauls between the Alps and the 
Po, and he raised to the rank of Senators a whole host of Gaulish 
Centurions in his army, as well as soldiers. Thus the conquerors of 
Pharsalia came to stammer out Latin by the side of Cicero. Thus 
that body, once so august, was now under the control of the thrice- 
elected Dictator. This Senate decreed a general celebration of his 
various victories, during forty days. A bronze statue of him was to 
be set up in the Capitol, inscribed " the demigod !" His triumphant 
processions, one for Gaul, another for Egypt, a third for Syria, and a 
fourth for Xumidia, bore him four times, in the highest state which 
mortal could sustain, up to the temple where his image testified to 
immortality, while to all classes of the people, revellings, games, and 
fastings, were continued with unsparing prodigality. His fifth and 
last triumph was that obtained over the sons of Pompey, of Munda. 
The Senate still continued to lavish upon him every kind of extrava- 
gant homage, even acknowledging him as the Julian Jupiter, and or- 
dainiug a temple and a priesthood to be consecrated to his worship. 
So fell the liberty, and so trembled the religion of Rome. There was 
now but on.' man tor those "that talked of Rome," to pi their 

sovereign, and t'> confess their deity.f 

Thus bytheirvi re the Roman people brought to servitude, 

not as they were unwilling, but as it" bondage had become more ac- 
ceptable to them than liberty. 

* Gov. Gardner of Mass. t Elliot's Liberty of Rome. 



THE FALL OF ROME. 67 

"But what more oft, in nations grown corrupt, 
And by their vices brought to servitude, 
Than to love bondage more than liberty?'' 

The almost superhuman influence which Ccssar exerted as Emperor 
was, however, destined to a swift annihilation. His work of massacre 
and spoliation had ceased, and now the retributions of Providence were 
to follow. The story of his subsequent career to its end is already 
familiar to the reader. With the accession of Octavius Caesar, who 
assumed the title of Augustus and Emperor, may be said to have 
ended the greatest commonwealth the world has ever seen, and the 
commencement of the greatest monarchy. The empire of Rome was 
extended over the whole globe ; in Europe, it comprised Italy, Gaul, 
Spain, Lusitania, Greece, Illyricum, parts of Britain and Germany ; — 
in Asia, Armenia, Syria, India, Asia Minor, Mesopotamia, and Me- 
dia ; — in Africa, Egypt, Numidia, Mauritania, and Libya. But it was 
under the tyranny of her praetorian guards that the liberty of Rome 
was sacrificed. There is a voice which yet speaks to us from Marius, 
and Sylla, and Philippi. 

The ruin of the free classes of Rome, and the consequent depopu- 
lation of the empire, appears to have been the specific malady of the 
state, and under which it suffered dissolution.* Gibbon forcibly 
portrays the skepticism and its usual accompaniments, which ob- 
tained among the higher ranks of Roman society. " It was indiffer- 
ent to them what shape the folly of the multitude might choose to as- 
sume, and they approached with the same inward contempt, and the 
same external reverence, the altars of the Libyan, the Olympian, or 
the Capitoline Jupiter." 

The Abbe Lamennais asserts, " that in such a frame of society, 
the human mind had nothing to rest upon. Despoiled of its faith, 
and even of its opinions, it was drifted upon an ocean of uncertainty and 
doubt, There was no more of paganism — no more of philosophy, un- 
less you call by that name those idle vagaries with which the Romans 
amused their leisure in the gardens of their villas, or under the porti- 

•"" Michelet. 



68 A VOICE TO AMERICA. 

coes of their palaces, but from which proceeded no guide to the con- 
science, no fixed rule of conduct. They descanted upon their gods only 
to doubt their existence — on their duties, to elude them — on death, to 
determine how life could be enjoyed most ; and the whole was termi- 
nated by abandoning themselves, heedlessly, to the current which car- 
ried, pell-mell, the wrecks of social order, men, institutions, and the 
empire itself." Montesquieu, and other reliable authorities, do not 
essentially differ in their opinions. 

Last, but greatest of all the causes that rendered the Roman peo- 
ple incapable of existing any louger as a Republic, that made their 
subjugation to the rule of some military adventurer inevitable, was 
the universal spread of irreligion and profligacy.* This is disguised, 
or lightly passed over by some modern writers ; but no one can be- 
come familiar Avith the classics, without having it perpetually forced 
upon his notice in a thousand different forms ; no mistaken delicacy 
should prevent us from dwelling and reflecting on the facts. They 
teach the great moral, that, to preserve freedom, piety and virtue must 
not be suffered to decay. The Romans, whose foreign conquest and 
domestic concord Polybius witnessed, believed firmly in a future state 
of rewards and punishment ; hence, as Polybius remarked, came the 
probity that honorably distinguished their nation. The Romans of 
Caesar's time had learned to look on such ideas as vain and ridiculous. 

Among the Roman virtues, not the least conspicuous, was her sub- 
lnne patriotism. It was this that added such august dignity to the 
Roman character ; but, with the loss of her virtues, came the fall of 
the great commonwealth. 

No people has ever been destroyed unless internal division has 
first prepared the way for an invader. Nationality is of too strong a 
power to be seriously affected by external attacks : its foes are in 
its own household, and cliques and feuds are its most dangerous 
enemies. 

The armies of Joshua found the Canaanites an easy prey, for that 
ancient people were split up into numerous principalities and tribes, 

* Mcrivjilc. 



THE FALL OF HOME. 69 

though of coHiinon origin, language, and customs. Their several 
kings or chieftains could resolve on no settled action against the in- 
vader ; internal jealousies prevented a united action, and the several 
nations were annihilated in detail. 

Carthage, the mistress of the world when Rome was yet in its in- 
fancy, flourished peacefully so long as concord and unity influenced 
her citizens in the common good, but faction wrested victory from her 
brow, persecuted and banished the immortal Hannibal, and left her 
palaces in ruins at the feet of her conquerors. „ 

Rome, eternal Rome herself, felt the terrible evils of division. 
Against such treason to the Republic, Cicero thundered in fearful elo- 
quence, denouncing the Catiliues and anarchists of the age who sought 
to divide a united people. It was by such divisions that Caesar and 
Pompey destroyed the Republic, and left it the prey of emperors. 

Feuds and civil war delivered Italy to the barbarians, and the rival 
houses of the Arsini, Colonna, Medici, &c., plunged her in mediaeval 
darkness. Poland shone among the nations, and drove back the 
Moslems from the walls of Vienna, for she was then moved by one 
principle, and patriotism had an existence in her midst. But an evil 
day came, and her nobles forgot their country, and thought but of 
their own selfish interests. Then, what the mighty Turkish power 
had failed to injure, trembled before a northern invader ; Poland was 
still the same nation, the same heroic people ; but her soldiers were 
slain, and her scythemen annihilated, because the bond of union, the 
common action, was now no more. 

History has graven on the granite columns of Time the incontro- 
vertible maxim, "Union is Strength." Ambition and Tyranny have 
divined its import, and embraced the only course which could affect 
it. That course ia, Diviser pour regner : (Divide, in order to reign.) 
It is only by such a policy that liberty can be attacked ; she is safe 
against all foreign enemies; storms will pass harmlessly over her; but 
dissension will induce rancor, and rancor, anarchy : thus the State is 
quickly left to bemoan its loss of freedom, when it sees itself the prey 
of ever-changing tyrants. 

4* 



TO A VOICE TO AMERICA. 

The loss of a firm national character, or the degradation of a na- 
tion's honor, is the inevitable j>relude to her destruction. Behold the 
once proud fabric of a Roman empire, an empire carrying its arts and 
arms into every part of the eastern continent ; the monarchs of 
mighty kingdoms, dragged at the wheels of her triumphal chariots ; 
her eao-le waving over the ruins of desolated countries: where is her 
splendor, her wealth, her power, her glory ? Extinguished forever. 
Her mouldering temples, the mournful vestiges of her former gran- 
deur, afford a shelter to her muttering monks. Where are her states- 
men, her sages, her philosophers, her orators, her generals \ Go to 
their solitary tombs and inquire. She lost her national character, and 
her destruction followed. The ramparts of her national pride were 
broken down, and Vandalism desolated her classic fields.* 

Thus has the mighty mother of nations fallen — with all her pride 
of beauty, her majestic power, her intellectual greatness, and her sub- 
lime patriotism ! 

"Ah, eloquence, thou wast undone, — 
Wast from thy native country driven, 
When tyranny eclipsed the sun, 
And blotted out the stars of heaven!" 

Yet the world ceases not to do homage to her lost virtues, as well as 
her triumphant exploits in arts and philosophy ; aud in all coming 
time, will there be found admiring multitudes who will delight to 
gaze up into those bright blue skies, which inspired the muse of Vir- 
gil, to linger amid the ruins of her Forum, so memorable for the stu- 
pendous eloquence of Cicero, and to bend before that Temple of Lib- 
erty, in which Rienzi vowed to her protection in her last asylum. 

"Her rained column iblime, 

Flinging their shadows from on high; 
Like dials which the wizard Time 
Had raised to count Ins age gone 1 

Other great cities of p; may attract us — Thebes, Babylon. 

* Maxcy. 



THE FALL OF ROME. 71 

Persepolis, and Nineveh — but Imperial Rome awes us with a solemn 
sense of her mighty mind, as well as her magnificence. It is the 
genius loci of the great capital that invests it with such deep and 
absorbing interest. " It is because she was the lawgiver of the 
nations ; parent of institutions that give civility and development to 
society ; inventress of the arts that establish right through reason ; 
source of that social wisdom which is civil power, — that the all-impe- 
rial city sits throned in the ever-during reverence of the mind, girt 
with a divinity invisible, perhaps, to the frivolous, . but irresistible to 
the thoughtful minded." 



ITALIAN LIBERTY IN THE MIDDLE AGES. 

" The sea, that emblem of uncertainty, 
Changed not so fast, for many ami many an age, 
As this small spot." 

When the irruption of the Teutonic tribes into the Roman Empire 
had plunged Europe in barbarism, the first attempt at the establish- 
ment of order and government was the creation of the feudal system. 

" The establishment of the feudal system had a powerful and 
striking influence upon European civilization. It changed the distri- 
bution of the population. Hitherto, the lords of the territory, the 
conquering population, had lived united in masses more or less 
numerous, either settled in cities, or moving about the country in 
bands ; but, by the operation of the feudal system, these men were 
brought to live isolated, each in his own dwelling, at long distances 
apart."* 

No system has been so powerful in checking democratic liberty as 
feudalism. Leaguing with the'throne or the Church, as circumstances 
rendered necessary, it consolidated power, and became, as it were, an 
integral part of government. The people, ignored by it, were only 
used to add vis inertice to the pretensions and encroachments of their 
oppressors. 

But one country refused its adoption. Whilst the rest of Europe 
was developing feudality, Italy barred its progress beyond the x\lps, 
and created those asylums of individual liberty, the various Repub- 
lics, which it is now our intention to examine. 

The Italian Republics of the Middle Ages demand the serious 
attention of our citizens, suffering, as they did, from like attack with 
ourselves, and succumbing eventually beneath those evils which 

* Guizot. 



74 A VOICE TO AMERICA. 

equally affect us, and which, if unchecked, will ultimately prove our 
ruin. The Italian commonwealths are worthy the love and esteem of 
our citizens; for they preserved all that then remained of democracy, 
and shielded liberty from destruction during the most critical period 
of European affairs. We do not propose to give a history of all or any 
of these States, but, glancing at their origin and prosperity, to study 
those causes which destroyed freedom, and thus, from the misfortunes 
of Italy, to inculcate a warning to America. 

The municipal government which Rome had established throughout 
the empire, had taken deep root in Italy, and having flourished during 
many centuries, offered a firm bander to the progress of feudalism. 
This system had existed too long for Italy to unite as one nation. 
Each large city had a government peculiar to itself; and the smaller 
towns which sprung up around them, entering into alliance for mutual 
defence, formed the nucleus of a republic. • 

Venice seems to have been one of the earliest States which devel- 
oped the republican form of government. The hordes of Lombards 
which devastated Italy in the sixth and seventh centuries, succeeded 
in establishing their power in the north and south, but failed on the 
Lagunes, at the extremity of the Adriatic. As early as the time of 
Atiila, these marshes had been the refuge for the rich citizens of vari- 
ous towns, fleeing from the Huns and "other barbarous tribes. 

"A few in fear 

Flying away from him, whose boast it was 

That the grass grew not where his horse had trod, 

Gave birth to Venice." 

In course of time, a large population found a home on the various 
islands, supporting themselves by the making of salt, fishing, and the 
commerce <>t' the various rivers whose mouths form the Lagunes. 

"Like the water-fowl. 
They built their nests among tli<- ocean-wa^ 

The barbarians, not po ing any vessels, Left these refugees unmo- 
lested; and they maintained their independence under the adminis- 



ITALIAN LIBERTY IN THE MIDDLE AGES. 75 

tration of tribune-, named by the inhabitants of the various islands. 
Each island formed a separate State, and thus jealousies and disputes 
arose, until, at length, they united themselves into one republic, elect- 
ing an assembly and a chief, to whom they gave the name of Doge. 
In 809, during a war with Pepin, they made choice of the island of 
the Rialto as their capital, and, twenty years later, transported thither 
the body of St. Mark, whom they chose as their patron saint. 

In the south, the republics of Gaeta, Amalfi, and Naples had 
successfully resisted the attacks of Lombards and Saracens, and cov- 
ered the Levant with ships of merchandise. To Amalfi is due the 
glory of the invention of the mariner's compass, the establishment of 
the order of the Knights Hospitalers of Jerusalem, and the preser- 
vation of the pandects of Justinian. Naples and Amalfi both suc- 
cumbed to the Normans, under Roger II., in the beginning of the 
twelfth century. 

" "When, towards the end of the eleventh century, the Western 
world took up the dispute with the Saracens for the sepulchre of 
Jesus Christ, Venice, Pisa, and Genoa had already reached a high 
point of commercial power. These three cities had more vessels on 
the Mediterranean than the whole of Christendom besides. They 
seconded the Crusaders with enthusiasm. They provisioned them 
when arrived off the coast of Syria, aud kept up their communica- 
tion with the West. The Venetians assert that they sent a fleet of 
two hundred vessels, in the year 1099, to aid the first crusade. The 
Pisans affirm that their archbishop, Daimbert — who w r as afterwards 
Patriarch of Jerusalem — passed into the East with a hundred and 
twenty vessels. The Genoese claim only twenty-eight galleys and 
six vessels. But all concurred with equal zeal in the conquest of the 
Holy Land ; and the three maritime republics obtained important 
privileges, which they preserved as long as the kingdom of Jerusalem 
lasted."* 

Such was the prosperity of the Italian Republics when Frederic 
Barbarossa determined to abolish their freedom, and render Italy an 

*Sismondi. 



76 A VOICE TO AMERICA. 

integral part of the German Empire. The small towns quickly per- 
ceived that their only safety was in joining some one of the great 
cities, and making common cause against their oppressor. Thence 
arose the Guelph and Ghibeline parties, which distracted the penin- 
sula with civil war during several centuries. 

The two party-cries, which seem to us insufficient to account for 
the sanguinary proceedings which desolated Italy, represented two 
important principles. The Emperors .of Germany were determined 
to vanquish the democratic institutions of the Italians, and, by grant- 
ing certain immunities to different cities, obtained their assistance 
against the Gnelphs, who asserted their independence of the Emperors, 
and found a willing ally in the Papacy, then in the height of the 
struggle to rid itself of the temporal power. 

Notwithstanding the civil commotion which threw the entire coun- 
try into one camp or the other, Italy presented a magnificent picture 
at the close of the thirteenth century. The authority of the popes 
and emperors having become suspended, numerous petty independent 
republics had arisen : the country was filled with cultivated plains 
and valleys, the proprietors advancing capital and sharing the har- 
vests ; immense canals were constructed for purposes of irrigation, of 
which the Naviglio Grande of Milan still bears testimony to the sci- 
ence and perseverance of seventy-eight years. The cities began to 
construct and perfect those wonderful works of art, which the lapse of 
six centuries still sees drawing the steps of travellers to Florence, Ge- 
noa, and Venice : the towns were surrounded with fortifications, and 
the streets paved with flag-stones. Magnificence and taste combined 
to raise and beautify the palaces of Italian citizens, at a time when 
the nobles and princes of the rest of Europe thought but of security 
and defence Sculpture, both of bronze and marble, flourished under 
i he chisels <>i' tlie forerunners of Michael Angelo; the "Gates of 
If saven" of the Baptistery at Floi . whilsl Cimabue and 

to revived painting, Casella, music, and Dante gave to the world 
his glorious poem. History was Btudied, ami written with elegance 
and truth by Giovanni Villani and others, whose records bear t 



ITALIAN LIBERTY IX THE MIDDLE AGES. 77 

mony to the flourishing- state of their country, and its happiness under 
the blessings of self-government. The manufactures of Italy, particu- 
larly in stuffs and arms, excited the astonishment and cupidity of the 
northern nations ; the Tuscan and Lombard merchants trafficked in 
the East and West, bartering their goods to the people, and lending 
money to the nobles at large interest : the banking and monetary 
system of Europe was established by them. The laboring classes 
were in similar prosperity ; each gained largely, and spent but moder- 
ately, for manners were yet pure, and luxury had not as yet affected 
virtue. 

But this prosperity was doomed, and the dissensions of the various 
republics soon surrendered liberty to the uncontrolled power of such 
despots as the Visconti and the Medici. War broke out in 1282, be- 
tween Genoa and Pisa, which continued with various success until the 
year 1284. 

The history of Florence, " that land where the poet's lip and the 
painter's hand are most divine," presents more objects of importance 
than any other republic of the Middle Ages. Previous to her subjec- 
tion to the Medici, she was free, active, and independent, the protec- 
tress of Italian liberty, the nurse of art and science. There was an 
immeasurably greater degree of democratic liberty in her midst than 
elsewhere. Venice was an oligarchy, whilst a powerful aristocracy 
predominated more or less in the other republics. 

" Florence was the Athens of Italy. The genius displayed by some 
of its citizens, — the talent and intelligence in business to be found 
even in the mass of the people, — the generosity which seemed the 
national character, whenever it was necessary to protect the oppressed 
to defend the cause of liberty, — raised this city above every other."* 

Discord broke out, however, in 13*78 ; the lower orders demanding 
a more complete equality with the higher classes. The constitution 
became at this time entirely democratic ; the people were sovereign, 
and the nobles were excluded from the government. The seeds of 
anarchy and oppression were, however, in her midst, — the citizens 

* Sismondi. 



78 A VOICE TO AMERICA. 

were divided into twenty-one different corporations of arts or trades, 
from seven of which, termed arti maggiwri, the magistrates might 
alone be chosen. From these sprung the Albizzi and Ricci, rival 
houses, and eventually the Medici, who, from popular leaders, became 
the absolute sovereigns of the republic. 

The disputes between the higher and lower orders of the citizens 
broke out with renewed intensity in 1378. The poorer classes of arti- 
sans flew to arms, and made themselves masters of the city. A 
carder of wool, Michele Lando, marched at the head of the people, 
carrying in his hand the gonfalon or national standard, when suddenly 
the citizens proclaimed him gonfalonier. He restored peace and se- 
curity to the State, and ordained that in future the chief magistracy 
should consist of three members of the major arts, three of the minor, 
and three of the ciompi or wool- carders. But this state of order and 
freedom did not long exist: in 1381 the people were deprived of 
power, and the family of Albizzi then directed the republic for fifty- 
three years. This house governed the State prosperously ; Florence 
attained an unexampled degree of prosperity, setting a limit to the 
ambition of the powerful Gian Galeazza Visconti, Ladislaus, king of 
Naples, and Filippo Maria, duke of Milan. 

"No triumph of an aristocratic faction ever merited a more bril- 
liant place in history. The one in question maintained itself by the 
ascendency of its talents and virtues, without ever interfering with the 
rights of the other citizens, or abusing a preponderance which was 
all in opinion."* 

The family of the Medici having obtained the leadership of the 
people by advocating popular doctrines, now intrigued to build up the 
fortunes of their house, and Cosmo de Medici became the rival of the 
Albizzi. Driven from the city in 1433, he was recalled the following 
year, and the Albizzi expelled. 

Had there been any patriotism in the Italian nation at this period — ■ 
had any common course of action or policy existed, or union of the 
diii'.'i. ^it republics been effected — Italy could have cleared the Penin- 

; ' Sismondi. 



ITALIAN LIBERTY EN THE MIDDLE AGES. 79 

sula of foreign armies, and driven the French, Germans, Spaniards, 
and Swiss, with countless Condottieri, beyond the Alps. The great 
republics of Milan, Venice, and Florence, could not, however, con- 
sent to this forgetfulness of rivalry, and the two latter refused to ad- 
mit Milan into such a union. Italy, therefore, soon became a prey, 
not merely to foreigners, but to her own citizens, and the various re- 
publics fell into the hands of those rich families, whose only object 
was self-aggrandizement. 

Cosmo de Medici resolved to effect that, in which the family of the 
Bentivogli had been successful in Bologna, — the subjugation of the 
State to his rule, and that of his descendants. In this he eventually 
succeeded, and henceforward we can no longer regard Florence as a 
republic, but as a duchy,— glorious, magnificent, and powerful, it is 
true, but a State in which democratic liberty did not exist, even in 
name, where the pride of a dominant family was the first, the only 
consideration. Florence had been the least selfish of all the Italian 
republics : she had opposed the oppressive power of the German em- 
perors, assisted her weaker neighbors against their tyrants, and been 
the guardian of liberty, generally, in Italy. But she fell, because in an 
evil hour she followed a selfish policy, and forgot the good of the 
whole in her private jealousies. 

There was a gleam of hope, however, when, in 1494, Florence ex- 
pelled the Medici, after they had governed the city during sixty years. 
Three parties aspired to power. The Piagnoni, headed by the famous 
Savonarola, a monk, who demanded a democratic constitution ; the 
Arabbiati, who aspired to hold the same aristocratic power as that 
formerly held by the Medici ; and the Bigi, the partisans of the Medici, 
who kept studiously in retirement. These three parties became so 
evenly balanced in the bcdia or national council of 1494, that "Sa- 
vonarola took advantage of this state of affairs to urge that the people 
had never delegated their power to a balia, which did not abuse their 
trust. ' The people,' he said, ' would do much better to reserve this 
power to themselves, and exercise it by a council, into which all the 
citizens should be admitted.' His proposition was agreed to, and a 



80 A VOICE TO AMERICA. 

general council was formed, and declared sovereign on the 1st of July, 
1495 ; it was invested with the election of magistrates, hitherto chosen 
by lot, and a general amnesty was proclaimed, to -bury in oblivion all 
the ancient dissension of the Florentine republic."* 

J >ut the popular voice proved inconstant, and Savonarola's influence 
quieklv gave way to that of the Arabbiati, who arrested him, and put 
his partisans, the Piagnoni, to flight. Pope Alexander VI. dispatched 
messages to Florence, ordering the monk to be p>ut to death, with his 
two disciples, Buonvicino and MaiTiifli, and they were accordingly 
burned alive, after suffering those excruciating tortures which pre- 
ceded their execution. 

With the aid of the Spaniards, in 1512, the exiled Medici returned 
to Florence ; but they had lost every republican feeling, and all sym- 
pathy of the Florentines. Their only object was to raise money for 
themselves, and for those Spaniards who had assisted them in regain- 
ing their tyrannical power. In 15C9, Pope Pius V. granted the title 
of Grand-Duke of Tuscany to Cosmo de Medici, a youth of nineteen : 
seven grand-dukes of that family reigned in Florence, the last of whom, 
Gian Gastone, died in 1737. Thereafter, Florence, once the first on. 
the scroll of liberty and fame, was scarcely mentioned in Europe. 

The little republic of San Marino, which has existed as an inde- 
pendent State since the fifth century, contains, at the present day, but 
four thousand inhabitants. Whilst her once powerful and magnificent 
neighbors no longer exist, and, what is remarkable, under the very 
eaves of the Vatican, she still preserves her laws and freedom. San 
Marino has its nobles and plebeians, from whom the legislative coun- 
cil of sixty members is chosen by universal suffrage. There is also 
an Upper Chamber, called the Council of Twelve, two-thirds of whom 
are renewed every year; and two capatini, who form the executi 
A supreme magistrate, who is invariably a stranger, administers jus- 
tice, and is elected for three years. The revenues are about $6,000, 
and the armed force consi brty men. The Republic pays great 

attention to letters, and supports a college which contains some fifty 

^ismondi. 



ITALIAN LIBEETY IN THE MIDDLE AGES. 81 

students. The Italian traveller, M. Valery, informs us the usual com- 
plaint is heard about the aristocracy, for it appears that a few rich 
families have managed to keep all political power in their own hands. 
Another complaint is of a still more serious character — non-resident 
strangers, unnaturalized, have become possessors, by purchase, of the 
greater part of the little State. The republicans of San Marino must 
obviate such a crying treason, or they will soon cease to exist as a 
separate nation. 

Florence, the brightest gem in Freedom's coronet, fell from her 
high estate, because she kept not guard over liberty. It was an 
easier struggle to vanquish the aristocratic Venice and Genoa, with 
the many minor States, which followed their baneful examples ; but 
all alike are now fallen, and the mailed hand of foreign despotism 
holds Italy in chains. In looking back upon the glorious era of the 
Italian republics, the mind is almost lost in admiration of the power 
exerted by these small commonwealths ; of their intense love of liberty, 
when the rest of mankind were sunk in comparative slavery, and their 
glorious monuments in literature and the arts, at a period when Eu- 
rope was in mediaeval barbarism. But a foe existed in their midst, 
and the very principles which have worked the ruin of all other re- 
publics compassed their destruction. Shall not Italy be a warning 
to other lands ? 

Neither the military hordes of the German emperors, the fearful 
thunders of the Vatican, the impetuous onset of the Gallic knights, 
nor the ceaseless ravages of the marauding Condottieri, could have 
prevailed against Freedom, had the Italians remained true to them- 
selves. But union did not exist — union had almost become impossi- 
ble : the sacred name of Liberty was used as a mere party-cry, and 
every man's hand was against his fellow. History declares with all 
the majesty of divinity, for her voice is but the fulfilment of prophecy, 
that conflicting principles and ceaseless agitation cannot exist in a 
community without destroying its vitality. Nay, the language of 
inspiration speaks in tones that man dare not gainsay — "A house 
divided against itself cannot stand." 



THE ANGLO-SAXON RACE AND . FREEDOM. 

"If there be any thing in the supremacy of races, the experiment now in progress will develop 
it."— Daniel Webster. 

Next to the divine instinct of religion, and scarcely less holy, is 
love of country and of the family to which we belong. Blood is the 
first and closest bond of life, endearing us, not only to our brethren, 
but to the generous soil which is our common heritance. We know 
not how it attracts us in sympathy, feeling, and disposition ; but its 
potency is none the less indisputable. It has been correctly remarked 
that the family is the first state. Next to occupying the same land, 
the best guarantee of fellowship is speaking the same tongue. Further 
bonds of union are established when our brethren share the same be- 
lief with us, worship at the same altars, meet at the same time and 
places to perform the ceremonies of religion and settle the graver 
affairs that agitate the whole community, and, generally, when they 
feel and act as the members of one family or race can alone feel and 
act if they would strengthen the circumstances of blood and com- 
mon language. A people that is a stranger to such emotions, occupies 
no position in the world's history, but becomes merely an instrument 
in the hands of other and more earnest nations. A distinct and 
sacred nationality is essential to the development of patriotism, as 
the latter is essential to the growth of virtue and freedom. 

The American is a branch of the great Anglo-Saxon family. This 
we hear every day. It is one of those trite definitions which trip 
from the tongue on the smallest provocation. How many are there 
who know any thing at all of the Anglo-Saxon family ? How many 



Si A VOICE TO AMERICA. 

are there who appreciate to its full extent the truth and glory of the 
assertion ? The number has been small, we believe, but it is swell- 
ing into magnificent proportions. The day is at hand when twenty 
millions of free-born sons of America shall rejoice in the boast that 
they are Anglo-Saxons ;-«— that day when the surging of turbulous 
foreign races shall provoke dignified and decisive reprimand. 

Where there are many conflicting elements of discord, it is not 
easy to mention a subject of national importance without eliciting 
ridicule and sarcasm. Anglo-Saxouism is particularly successful in 
this respect. It is a theme which can scarcely be broached in general 
society, without calling forth some silly sneer. Surrounded on every 
side by a mixed population, the American almost loses his own iden- 
titv ; but it is for a moment only. The " time that tries mens souls " 
leads him instinctively back to the great fountain-head of his betug, 
and he feels at once the race to which he belongs. We purpose in 
this chapter to devote ourselves, firstly, to a consideration of the Anglo- 
Saxon race en masse, and secondly, of that branch to which we be- 
long. We will preface our remarks with what a writer* of the 5th 
century says of the Anglo-Saxons of his day : " They overcome all 
who have the courage to oppose them ; they surprise all who are so 
imprudent as not to be prepared for their attack. When they pursue, 
they infallibly overtake ; and when they are pursued, their escape is 
certain. They despise danger ; they are inured to shipwreck ; they 
are eager to purchase booty with the peril of their lives. Tempests 
which to others are dreadful, to them are subjects of joy. The storm 
is their protection when they are pressed by the enemy, and a cover 
for their operations when they meditate an attack." It will be per- 
ceived how little the characteristics of the race have changed, and 
how much Ave inherit in this present day from our rally ancestors, 
especially in the particulars of overcoming opposition, despising dan- 
and laughing at the fierce threatenings of the ocean. 

The Aii!ilo-Sa\on race is undoubtedly of Scythiaa or Gothic origin, 
A portion of thi I family invaded Britain early as ;>00 years 



THE ANGLO-SAXON RACE AND FREEDOM. 85 

before the Christian era, whilst it was in possession of the Cimmerians 
or Celts. The Anglo-Saxons of that early day, who were called Bel- 
gse, from Belgic Gaul, whence they came, did not assimilate with 
other tribes more readily than they do now. The Celts had to aban- 
don their advantage, and at the time of Julius Caesar's invasion it 
was the stern courage and inflexible bravery of the Gethae's descend- 
ants, not the Cimmerians, that opposed his imperial legions. Pink- 
erton supposes that the interior of the island was still in the posses- 
sion of the Welch or Britons, as they were called. All memory of 
the Celts or Cimmerians who preceded the Welch in their occupation 
of Britain was unknown to the Roman and Saxon writers. 

The genuine Anglo-Saxons, however, whence the present race is 
descended, did not transport themselves to Britain until the fifth or 
sixth century. They came from the Cimbric peninsula (now Den- 
mark), and were branches of the great Saxon confederation which 
had extended itself from the Elbe to the Rhine. The Anglo-Saxons, 
Lowland Scotch, Normans, Danes, Norwegians, Swedes, Germans, 
Dutch, Belgians, Lombards, and Franks, have all sprung from this 
great Saxon confederation,* and may all be distinguished by the 
terms Scythian, German, or Gothic. Their first appearance in the 
world's history was in that cradle of nations — Asia. Here they 
multiplied and extended their area of operations for several centuries.f 
Amongst themselves their general appellation was Scolati ; among 
the Greeks, Scuthoi or Nomades. They are b^fcer known, however, 
as Getse or Goths. The more advanced of the tribes \mve known to 
the Romans as Germans. 

We will here deviate for a moment to explain the meaning of 
these various designations, and whence they are derived. Pliny 
speaks of the Scythians as Sacassani, which was probably a corrup- 
tion of Sakai-suna, or Sons of the Sakai, afterwards abbreviated into 
Saksun or Saxon .J The name is supposed to come from the same 
root as the Anglo-Saxon word seax, a sword. In the Persian book 
of Kings the same people are called Ssakalib, or Ssaklib — sword- 

* Pinkerton. f Herodotus, Strabo. % Miss Chandler. 

5 



86 A VOICE TO AMERICA. 

lips ; — the name being suggested in all probability by the Saxons 7 
fondness for that weapon, a fondness which the Anglo-Saxons of the 
present day do not fail to manifest whenever they have an opportu- 
nity of getting to elose quarters with an enemy. That they were a 
warlike people is beyond doubt; for even the Roman name, German, 
is derived from the old German ger, a spear, and mann, a man. 
After leaving Asia the Saxons adopted a new name and abandoned 
their Scythian one. They called themselves Teutons, from Teut, 
Tuisto, Tuisco, or Thiusco, who is said to have been one of the found- 
ers of the race, and who was worshipped after his death as a god. 
The modern name Deutsch is derived from this, having pas 
through the modifications, Dutsch, Dietsch, and Teutsch. 

A Scandinavian branch of the family settled in Scotland about 
the same period that the Belgre emigrated to Britain. The mem- 
bers of this section of the Saxon stock are known in history by the 
name of Picts, or Caledonians. They are said to be the ancestors of 
the Lowland Scotch and the Northern Irish — races that are distin- 
guished from their Celtic countrymen by superiority of intelligence, 
industry, and firmness of character. 

We have thus briefly traced the origin of the Anglo-Saxon family, 
and have shown whence it came. We will now prove that from 
earliest time to the presenl it has been the consistent champion of 
freedom, loyalty, and devotion. It cannot be disputed that the Anglo- 
Saxons were from the first, and are to the present day, fond of what 
is delicately termed "annexation." They \. r ready to pur- 

chase booty, as the learned Sidonius remarks, with the peril of their 
lives. A brave people cannot resist the temptation of adventure, and 
the peril which it involves is, perhaps, its greatesl attraction. A 
notable illustration may be found in Jonathan's love for Tuba. If 
that island could be acquired quietly and as a matter of course, no 
one would trouble himself about it. But it is othe • . and the 
Ajaglo-Saxon principles of overcoming difficulties and vanquishing 
opposition manifest themselves. Those writers who recommend Jon- 
athan to wait until Cuba, like a ripe pear, fells into the lap of her 



THE ANGLO-SAXON II ACE AND FREEDOM. 87 

American lover, display but little knowledge of the Anglo-Saxon 
character. Independently of this restless force of character, how- 
ever, there is the moral element, which governs and controls its 
action. 

If the Anglo-Saxon were a mere marauder, he would rest content 
with acquisition and pillage. But he does not do so. The laud he 
has fought for, he cherishes. It is thereafter Ms land ; a part of 
himself, and to be regarded from the elevation of his freedom-loving, 
noble mind. He may have acquired it by the sword, but he retains 
it by the law, and by a man-to-man faith and affection. Wheresoever 
the Anglo-Saxon pioneer goes, he fights first ; then builds his chapel, 
his courthouse, his schools, and his stores. He does not labor to 
forget civilization, but to exclude barbarism. All the Roman writers 
expressed their astonishment at the moral sternness and rectitude of 
the Teutonic character. The reverence with which they treated wo- 
man w T as even a matter of surprise. Tacitus says : " They think their 
women possess something inherent and foreseeing." Is it not just 
occasion of pride, that in our day this chivalric feeling still remains, 
and forms a proverbial characteristic of the American character i 
Wherever Freedom is found, there is woman emancipated. England 
is the freest country in Europe, and there the position of woman is 
little inferior to what it is in our own land. Among the ancienl 
Britons (or Celts) marriage was unknown. Men and women lived 
together promiscuously, like beasts of the field. The Anglo-Saxons, 
on the contrary, viewed the custom with abhorrence, and were strict 
in the observance of the marriage vow. Some of. their earliest laws, 
at least the earliest of which any record is known to exist, r I 
especially to the crime of adultery. It was looked upon as most 
heinous, and received the severest punishment of the Anglo- 
code. In religion, the same wide difference existed between the 
two races. The Celts adhered to their Druidic worship, and aban- 
doned their souls to the charge of the priests. The Anglo-Saxons, 
on the contrary, prayed lo their mythological gods with individual 



88 A VOICE TO AMERICA. 

fervor, and i itenl to manage their own* conscience, and let 

5 do the same. For a while the Romish religion gained the 
adency in Europe, and Celt and Saxon alike obeyed its ten 
But later, ere th i voice of Luther shouted sternly through the dark- 
ness of Popery, the Anglo-Saxon WicHiffe had proclaimed liberty 
of conscience. The Celts, on the contrary, adhered to the old tra- 
ditions ; and even in this day of generally diffused theological know- 
ledge, the Celtic races are obedient to the blind dictates of the Holy 

Thus we | . that to the earlies »-Saxons we are in- 

ted not only for the lasting characteristics of our race, but for that 
inherent reverence for the gentler sex, and toleration of religious 
opinion, which characterize the American people of the pre* 
century. But this is not all. The Anglo-Saxons loved fair play, and 
could understand no trial that was not based on general principles of 
equity and justice. In the reign of Ethelred, the following law was 
passed: " Let there be gemoto in every wapenlace ; and let twelve 
of the eldest thegres go out with the gerefa, and swear on the 
relics which shall have been given into their hands, that they will 
condemn no innocent man, nor screen any that is guilty."* In 
: "Let there be courts in every district, and let the 
sheriff summon twelve men to try all prisoners;" our, own prized 
tiial by jury ! If we had inherited nothing but this boon from our 
ancestors, it would be sufficient to endear the race to the present and 
to all after generations. 

If our space permitted, we could dwell on the memorable ■ 
of 1' in ii- Ajiglo-Saxons. But we have proved sufficient to satisfy 
the skeptic, thai Freedom isnol a new word, but an old idea, derived 
and retained from the earliesl pages of their history. We will add 
to these remarks the final sentence of King Alfred's will. It needs 
no comment "It is just that the English should forever remain as 
as their own thoughts." 
Turning to our own history, we find that the Anglo-Saxon element 

* Sharon Turner. 



THE ANGLO-SAXON RACE AND FREEDOM. 89 

lias ever been the potent one. Our present greatness and our future 
progress alike depend on it. The singular purity of the Anglo- 
Saxon stock, particularly in the Eastern States, has been a matter of 
surprise with some writers ; a moment's reflection, however, explains 
the circumstance. Oppression or intolerance of any kind was so in- 
imical to the character of the Anglo-Saxon, that it became unbear- 
able. Always preferring a certain to an uncertain remedy, he de- , 
tached himself from the land of his birth, and sought, on the shores 
of America, a home, free and filled with promise. Privation, suffer- 
ings, and hardships were, to his sturdy nature, mere items arrayed 
against a grand total. The future nerved him for the present, and 
he had unbounded confidence in his own inherent will. The New 
England colonies were founded by such men ; stern almost to fierce- 
ness, but patient, brave, and elevated in their social and moral 
thoughts. The counties in England whence they came were chiefly 
those which refused the domination of the Danes and Normans. 
Additions were afterwards made from the north of Ireland and the 
Scotch Lowlands ; but, as we have before intimated, these were either 
Anglo-Saxon in their origin, or Pictish — a kindred Gothic race. The 
last fifty years have witnessed the influx of hordes of Celts and of 
inferior German tribes. The effect has been trouble and annoyance. 
We must look to the pure American stock, and to the pure American 
stock only, for the remedy of these evils. It is indisputably true, 
however, that at this moment New England is more Anglo-Saxon, if 
possible, than Old England. " The names found in a few pages of a 
Boston Directory, or in the columns of advertisements in a news- 
paper, if compared with the same number of English names, take>n 
equally at random, will show the far greater proportion of Anglo- 
Saxon names with us."* According to an eminent historian,f the 
old Puritan stock leavens the national character to the extent of two- 
thirds of its aggregation. The other third could, we opine, be traoed 
to the same Anglo-Saxon fountain-head, if necessary. 

The heading of this chapter intimates that the Anglo-Saxon is + he 

* Miss Chandler. t # Bancroft. 



90 A VOICE. TO AMERICA. 

only race capable of sustaining freedom. We base that opinion on the 
facts we have adduced^ and on the additional one, that America is the 
only country in the world that has sustained institutions perfectly free. 

The history of the Anglo-Saxon race affords abundant material 
for the reflective mind. It exhibits in an unusual degree the fact 
that the national characteristics of a race do not change. 

It may be objected that scarcely any modern people has not been 
modified or changed by amalgamation with foreign blood, whether 
by conquest, immigration, or otherwise ; and in confirmation of this 
the English are sometimes cited. But the truth is, the Anglo-Saxons 
never settled among the Celtse — as the Franks among the Gauls — 
but drove them out, and, receiving continued accessions of their 
countrymen from the shores of the Baltic and adjacent islands, 
repeopled the conquered territory. The unhappy Britons (Celta?) in 
their memorable appeal to JEtius, the Roman patrician, forcibly de- 
scribe the kind of settlement the Teutons were making. " The bar- 
barians," they say, "on the one hand, chase us into the sea ; the sea, 
on the other, throws us back upon the barbarians ; and we have only 
the hard choice left us of perishing by the sword, or by the waves."* 

The Danes in the reign of Egbert and later, to the accession of 
Canute, were but tribes of the Angles or Saxons, differing only from 
those already settled in England in the fad of being more civilized. 
To the same race also belonged the Normans; but these latter never 
intermixed with the conquered in the same manner as the Danes. 
Introducing the feudal system into England they became a species of 
caste, and kept themselves aloof from the mass of the vanquished. 
Eventually the Norman Btock became much thinned during the long 
and bloody wars of the Roses. What remains of it in the English 
aristocracy has become so softened in its characteristics by contact 
with the people, that, except in the class distinctions of the feudal 
system, it is no longer a separate element of the population. Even 
this last fragment of Norman caste spirit is rapidly passing away. 

.History assists US in drawing certain conclusions from the ex- 

* Bede. 



THE ANGLO-SAXON RACE AND FREEDOM. 91 

perience of the world. In briefly recording the prominent events 
attending the career of the race from which we are descended, it is 
impossible to overlook the fact that the Anglo-Saxon race absorbs; 
but does not assimilate with other races; — borrows nothing from 
their sentiment; derives nothing from their nationality. What it - 
was a thousand years ago it is to-day ; Civilization and Education 
have not modified, but intensified its characteristic aspirations for 
Freedom and the Institutions of Freedom. The same unconquerable 
energy ; the same indomitable courage ; the same inflexible deter- 
mination to accomplish destiny, individualize the Anglo-Saxon people 
of to-day, as on the advent of the race under the victorious banners 
of Hengist and Horsa. The genius of the people has always been 
manifest ; their susceptibility for the highest achievements of the 
human body or intellect, undeniable. Wherever they have penetra- 
ted, Freedom, Religion, Arts, Sciences, and Literature have found a 
home. Colonization, which has been a ruinous experiment with 
every other nation, has prospered with the Anglo-Saxon, and for this 
reason : The latter retain, no matter what the difficulty of doing so, 
and cherish, their nationality. It is never laid aside or forgotten for 
one moment, and always rises superior to the circumstances by which 
it is surrounded. The colonization of other nations has failed for the 
•reason, that the colonists, lacking force of character, have been too 
anxious to assimilate with the people amongst whom they settled. 
The Spanish, French, Dutch (Hollanders), <fcc, have at various epochs 
in the world's history made successful attempts at settling on distant 
shores, but after the small end of the wedge has been inserted, the 
leverage has been thrown away by a degenerate imitation of the 
worst characteristics of the people amongst whom they settled. The 
Anglo-Saxon stands alone in that repellent force which, concentred in 
itself, throws off" all inferior bodies, but ever widens with opportunity 
io embrace what is most desirable and advantageous. In a word, it 
looks forwaul, never backward; upward, but never downward. What 
is beneath it, it passes by; what is above it, it aspires to, strives for, 
and achieves ! 



92 A VOICE TO AMERICA. 

We have remarked that the Anglo-Saxon absorbs other races, and 
this too, without suffering any apparent deterioration. Its character- 
istics have not changed, because the infusion of one race with another 
of stronger and better defined characteristics results in a general as- 
similation of the infused with the people amongst whom they settle, 
unless a spirit of caste prevail. Thus the Franks, after driving out 
the Romans from Gaul, soon lost their national characteristics, and 
became blended or lost in the immense majority of the Gaels. Thus, 
also, innumerable races may assimilate with the American, if, in their 
earnestness for what is desirable, they imitate the characteristics of 
the Anglo-Saxon. But if on the contrary they retain a spirit of 
caste, establish clanships or race distinctions of any kind, as the Tar- 
tars in China, assimilation is impossible. The national spirit will 
eventually drive them out. Before long the Tartars will cease to 
exist in China. The present revolution numbers their days. 

In all strongly individualized lines of descent, there is a persistency 
of type which is not affected by an admixture of foreign blood. At 
the revocation of the Edict of Nantes, thousands of French refugees 
settled in England, but the controlling majority obliterated their 
national peculiarities, and few traces now remain of their origin. 
Races ve their characteristics, but individuals assimilate. They 

are absorbed into the dominant race — particularly if it be Anglo- 
Saxon. 

The important n of race cannot be too vigorously im- 

pressed on the American mind. No other country in the world is 
so besieged with opposing elements of caste, sect, and foreign na- 
tionality. In the pulpit^ in the senate, in the street, and in the home 
circle, we find representatives of other races than our own. In the 
majority of cases these representatives have imbibed a certain amount 
of American sentiment, sufficient perhapsfor an i > through 

politics o y, and ai [uentlyinpr< absorption. But 

too frequently we find them tenaciously adhering to Old World doc- 
trine of government, religion, and social life. It may not be easy to 
abandon a life-long theory, but it Bhould !"■ no more difficult than 



THE ANGLO-SAXON RACE AMD FREEDOM. 93 

abandoning the land of one's birth. When the latter becomes im- 
perative, the former should be absolute. The American, by attaching 
due importance to every circumstance of race, learns precisely whence 
freedom sprang, and inversely to appreciate his own glorious birth- 
right, and to guard against encroachments from inimical sources. No 
sentiment that is not thoroughly Anglo-Saxon can he entertain, for it 
is his Anglo-Saxon principles that make him what he is. Montes- 
quieu remarks in his " Spirit of Laws ' r — " The English (by which of 
course is meant the Anglo-Saxon race) are the people who have best 
known how to preserve in full vigor those three great things (prin- 
ciples), religion, commerce, and liberty." This important avowal 
from such a philosopher should be studied word for word, and justi- 
fied from the pages of history; as indeed it is briefly vindicated in 
this chapter. If we ask ourselves why it is so, we shall find that it 
is because in religion the x\nglo-Saxon is always sincere in obeying 
his own conscience without extraneous dictation. Piety is an instinct 
with him, not a sensual gratification, as in Southern lands ; or an 
intellectual exercise, as in Northern ones. He has no dependence 
on any one but God and himself ; and needs no mediator but his 
own conscience. It is for the simple reason that the Anglo-Saxon is 
no hair-splitting doctrinarian that he has preserved his free religion. 
Speak to him about his faith, and he may hesitate in its exact defini- 
tion ; but speak to him of his conscience, and he knows precisely what 
you mean. If we would learn the secret of his success in preserving 
and fosterino- eommerce, we must turn to that other source of his 
greatness — his faith and confidence in the transactions of his fellow- 
man. He does to others as they should do to him. He begins by 
inviting confidence, and ends by securing it. The American people 
is the most trusting on the face of the earth, and the most enter- 
prising for that reason. The low vice of trading nations — meanness — 
is unknown to him. He is shrewd enough in securing a good bar- 
gain, but he forfeits nothing of his integrity in doing so. The ad- 
vantage he obtains is strictly a commercial one ; bought at no sacri- 
fice of independence or morality, but such an advantage as he would 

5* 



94 A VOICE TO AMERICA. 

appreciate in others, if the)' could gain it over him. The same 
characteristics are the features of his political history. He is free, 
loves freedom, appreciates it, and asks every one to come and share it 
with him. A little less confidence in the miscellaneous guests he has 
invited to his home might be desirable. It would be well if he 
noticed the peculiar characteristics of races, and remembered that 
they were inevitably the result of local circumstances, which, although 
they may be changed or removed, are for the most part difficult to 
eradicate. 

Bnt these things the American should never forget : 
That the Anglo-Saxon race is the only one which has proved itself 
capable of sustaining free political institutions; 

That the representation of the people, of the whole 'people, is of 
Teutonic origin, and can be traced up to the earliest time of the race; 
That the government of the Anglo-Saxons (and also of the Danes 
and Northmen) was never monarchical ; the chieftainship was never 
hereditary. A chief had power only in the field. The battle over, 
he was but a simple warrior, claiming no immunity and no superior 
portion of the booty talon in battle ; 

That the chief was chosen by universal suffrage. Alfred the Great 
came to the throne not in virtue of his birth — though de facto king 
of the Eeptarchy,he was nol so de jure. The Saxon constitution 
never thought of divine or hereditary right : thai absurd fiction was 
the resull of tyrannous combination and Rome; 

That the Representative Bystem is purely Anglo-Saxon. 11 was 
not instituted by Edward the First, but merely revived by him after 
it had iong lain in abeyance. The king was struggling against his 
Norman barons, and in his necessity claimed the assistance of his 
Saxon p»'<,ple; — they remembering former constitutional rights 
demanded and once more obtained them. This national assemblage 
of the representatives of the people was called in the legal Norman 
French of the time, Parler l< ment, signifying to speak one's mind. 
Thus freedom of thought and speech was a recognized right among 
the Saxons. The feudal system strove in vain to ignore it. No other 



THE ANGLO-SAXOX RACE AND FREEDOM. 95 

race in history has had any thing similar to this right The republics 
of ancient times were merely the aristocracy governing the piebs. 
The nearest approach to it, however, was found in the immunities 
enjoyed by the citizens of the Free-towns of Europe in the middle 
ages, as Antwerp, Bremen, Lubeck, etc. ; but even here the suffrage 
was limited, and lay in the hands of a tew. 

And, lastly, au American should demand from every foreigner, as 
an equivalent for the hospitality extended to him, a full recognition 
of the supremacy of this same Anglo-Saxon race. There is nothing 
■degrading in the admission, for it is justified in the existence of the 
very freedom he comes hither to enjoy ; and it is essential, because 
until he does acknowledge it, he is scarcely likely to imitate its vir- 
tues, its heroism, and its veneration for the institutions of freedom. 
Every man who comes to America with the intention of cherishing 
3 lis own nationality, is an enemy to the Constitution, and abuses a 
hospitality which should be sacred. The existence of a population 
thus disposed must be pernicious and dangerous. It is calculated to 
lessen the love of the American for his own home, and to render the 
nation less imposing and distinctive in the eyes of foreign powers. 

There cannot he a doubt thai Providence has selected the Anglo- 
Saxon race to spread the blessings of liberal institutions throughout 
the world. It is the only one, of modern times, which has been able 
to colonize with success, and firmly establish its character, its lan- 
guage, and its customs upon the new territories. What the English 
have gained by the lights of discovery, or the aggressions of war, 
America seems destined to organize and perfect It is therefore that 
our country displays to the world a power and a success characteristic 
of no other age or clime ; a liberty, of which the Grecian and Ro- 
man philosophers never dreamed, and which, next to Christianity in 
effulgence, shines through the earth as the light of suffering humanity. 
But this freedom is the victory, the hard-earned conquest, of centuries 
of struggles against oppression. Men of other races, individuals of 
other peoples, have declared the great principles of freedom — have, 
in thousands of instances, died in their defence — but the nations to 



96 A VOICE TO AMERICA. 

which these men belonged have made no universal response, but left 
them exceptions, and not characteristic examples. Xot so with the 
Anglo-Saxon ; the race has acted, and its heroes have embodied, only 
what its heart cordially responded to — what was the very instinct of 
its nature. 



THE HEROES OF THE FOUNDERS OF LIBERTY. 

" The present age is benefited by the experience of the past. We have in fruition what thousands 
hoped for, and vainly suffered to possess."— Goetiie. 

The wisdom of king Solomon will ever be perpetuated in the one 
declaration, " There is nothing new under the sun." Homer remarks 
that we always take the liberty of thinking ourselves wiser than our 
ancestors. Whatever we do, whatever idea illuminates our mind, 
whatever progress we attempt, the conclusion always is, that we are 
by so much abandoning the past and approaching a future more 
radiant and ennobling than any preceding epoch of the world's his- 
tory. It is doubtful, however, whether civilization, like the emblem 
of eternity, be not in the form of a circle ; whether we do not simply 
diverge from a point, to converge to it afterwards. Modern philoso- 
phy embraces the idea that the earliest era of man's existence was 
the most perfect ; and that what we lost then, is but now being slowly 
recovered. 

Be that as it may, there can be no reasonable doubt that the 
modern idea of freedom is of very early inception. All freedom, 
indeed, is the result of long agitated reform, based at first on an indi- 
vidual idea, permeating afterwards as a principle, and accomplished 
finally as a necessity of the times. Reforms usually commence with 
argument, and end with bloodshed. The comparative few who think, 
appeal to those who feel, and the two constitute leaders and revolu- 
tionists. 

There is no error more common than that which attributes to the 
principles of the war of American independence an original character. 
Many well-informed men entertain the belief that in the Declaration 



98 A VOICE TO AMERICA. 

of Independence were conveyed startling and entirely new ideas of 
liberty, and that the men who achieved it were indebted solely to 
the inherent greatness of their natures for a civil and political tri- 
umph, whose equal has yet to be found in the world. Whoever lias 
studied the history of the world — its constant yearnings for religious 
and political freedom — and observed the slow but certain progress of 
reform, needs scarcely to be told that this is an error. The American 
war of independence consummated a preconceived idea ; gave vitality 
to a principle which has from time immemorial occupied the atten- 
tion of thinkers. It was not a sudden, unexpected dispensation of 
liberty ; it was not a patriotic suggestion of the moment, but the 
accumulated result of centuries of effort. 

Wherever reform begins, revolution must, sooner or later, follow. 
It will be objected, that England is an exception to this rule. It 
must be borne in mind, however, that the best revolutionary spirit of 
England — that is, the spirit most tenacious of prerogative — left the 
mother-country for America in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. 
It was the strong, stubborn Saxon spirit that had risen in rebellion 
against the idiotic misrule of James, which first scaled the rocks of 
Plymouth Sound, and explored the inviting banks of .lames River. 
Congenial natures followed, and England rapidly lost the foremost 
men of her time, — nun who had been the centre of all reforms, and 
who brought with them the most elevated opinions of the century. 
In speaking of America as a new land, it should always be bom.' in 
mind that, practically, it is as old, it' not older, than any nation of 
Europe. The mere consideration of centuries is of little importance. 
Intelligence and civilization are the characteristics which stamp man- 
hood on a nation's brow. The Chinese in their chronologies go back 
far beyond the period when we arc taught to believe the world was 
created. It is said that in their school-books it is customary for the 
teacher to inserl a pencil-mark opposite the year in which the world 
is popularly supposed to have been made. But notwithstanding 
their extensive line of progenitors, the Chinese arc the youngest, the 
least informed, most frivolous people on the face of the earth. 



THE HEROES OF THE FOUNDERS OF LIBERTY. 99 

The progress of humanity may be likened, says an eloquent writer,* 
to the successive necessities of repairing the ancient homestead of 
our fathers. We are unwilling to disturb the old framework, and 
yet the decay of parts imperatively calls for repairs. But every 
attempt to add and beautify, by comparison, discovers defects, and 
the skill of the mechanic and artist stands in permanent requisition. 
The homestead of our American forefathers was found too seriously 
dilapidated to admit of repairs. It was vacated, and a new one 
erected on the Atlantic shores of wild America. Bu. the men who 
erected that homestead were no untutored pioneers. They knew pre- 
cisely the defects of the old homestead, and avoided them — falling, 
however, for a time, on others equally great and pernicious. Their 
new house was, in all important respects, put in order with the best 
of all judgments — that which had been tutored in bitter experience. 

The perfection of earthly happiness is freedom, and that, as we 
have before asserted, is the slow result of gradual reform. If we 
penetrate the darkness of remote antiquity, we find minds of a supe- 
rior order striking initial blows at the root of tyranny and oppression. 
In Dr. Abbot's Egyptian Museum (New York) there is a remarkably 
curious illustration of this fact. A rude artist of the earliest Egyp- 
tian period (3000 years B. C), caricatures the priesthood for their low, 
fox-like cunning and rapacity. This exceedingly curious work of art 
is executed on a tile, and was doubtless in its day a missile of some 
weight, Thus we perceive that there were religious reformers even in 
the days of the first Pharaoh. It is not unreasonable to suppose that 
there were political reformers also. 

The men who have made sacrifices in the holy cause of Freedom, — 
particularly those who come from the same stock as ourselves, — 
are assuredly worthy of our best remembrance. To them we are 
indebted for the prosperous consummation of a free country. They 
are not only our lineal ancestors, but the parents of our best and 
most noble thoughts. Without their example and their spirit, we 
should be, even now, a colony, cursed with Church, State, and 
* History of Democracy, Vol. I. pugc 34. 



100 A VOICE TO AMERICA. 

man-worship, and all the other imbroglio of monarchism. Unfortu- 
nately, the limits of our work prohibit any thing like a complete 
sketch of the antecedent heroes of political liberty. The most we 
can accomplish is to select a few names, and present them as finger- 
marks along the track of history, for the admiration of the reader. 
Our endeavor will be to make them, as far as possible, the repre- 
sentatives of their class and epoch, and briefly but explicitly to set 
forth their claims to the consideration of the law-abiding people of 
this country. 

Our sketch is to illustrate the growth of those institutions which 
we now enjoy in America. To do this with any thing like elabo- 
rateness, would compel us to epitomize the general history of the past. 
Political heroes obtain their greatest attraction from the circum- 
stances in which they were placed ; and, indeed, would not be inter- 
esting to a general reader, in the absence of such connecting in- 
formation. Hence the necessity for dwelling with some detail on 
events which were of vital importance to the earl}" founders of Amer- 
ican freedom. The antecedent history of America begins, of course, 
witli the Saxons. In this chapter we have commenced with Alfred 
the Great, for it is only subsequenl to the reign of that monarch that 
Freedom began to be modernized. 

For the record of an able, patriotic, liberty-loving man, and the 
people's beloved ruler, we cordially turn to the lit*.' of an early 
hero. In-iauces of unselfish loyalty to constitutional liberty are so 
ce, that this model man may well be venerated. His merits were 
not of a class order; he was good not. merely as a kin--, — which 
would scarcely concern us, — but as a citizen. In private as in public 
life, he practised what he professed : " so happily were all his virtues 
tempered together, so justly were they blended and so powerfully did 
each prevent the other from exceeding its ] ' -."* 

Alfred the Great, youngest son of King Ethelwolf, was born in 
Berkshire, England, in 819. A.1 an early age he was taken by his 
father to Rome, where he remained twelve months, but without ac- 

'■ Hume. 



THE HEROES OF THE FOUNDERS OF LIBERTY. 101 

quiring any kind of knowledge, save perhaps an insight into the 
avariciousness of Romish priests, of which he afterwards made good 
use. Pope Leo the Third, perceiving in the boy something of 
promise more than was usually manifested, went through the playful 
operation of giving him the royal unction. This consisted, so far as 
we have been able to discover, in muttering a few prayers, accompa- 
nied with some theatrical ceremonies, in return for which the recipi- 
ent was expected to make liberal grants of money and land — a 
common sort of exchange in days of bigoted superstition. Ethelwolf, 
Alfred's father, returned to England to find his kingdom torn to 
fragments by the ravages of the Danes. The incursions of these 
desperate marauders continued with unabated fury to the day of his 
death. If you can imagine a noble steed pursued by a band of 
remorseless wolves, sometimes giving them battle with success, at 
others fleeing from them with apprehension, you will have a good 
idea of the condition of England in the year 800. Ethelwolf died, 
and was succeeded rather summarily by his sons, Ethelbald, Ethel- 
bert, and Ethelred. It was dining the reign of the latter that Alfred 
gave the first indication of his patriotism. Ethelred had unjustly 
deprived him of a large patrimony, and beside this, kept him from a 
throne which had been bequeathed to him by the will of his father, 
Ethelwolf. Either of these reasons was sufficient, in those days, to 
attract a band of eager warriors to his standard. The national dan- 
ger, however, was from the continued irruptions of the Danes. To 
put a stop to these, Alfred eagerly seconded all the efforts of his 
brother Ethelred. The nation's welfare, and not the individual's 
right, was consulted for the first time in that rude age. 

Reading and writing in those days were accomplishments of a high 
order, and were seldom essayed except by members of the priesthood. 
It is said that Alfred's enthusiasm for learning was first aroused by 
hearing the Saxon bards repeat their wild lyrics. Himself a poet, 
as he afterwards abundantly proved, he at once estimated the incom- 
parable advantages of an education. He soon learnt to read, and 
proceeded then to acquire a knowledge of the Latin language. The 



102 A VOICE TO AMERICA. 

# 

Roman poets and philosophers fired him with noble emulation, and 
contributed in no small degree to the formation of a character natu- 
rally heroic. In the midst of his studies, he was called to the throne. 
His first enterprises, like those of his predecessors, were, of course. 
directed against the common enemy — the Danes. They were prose- 
cuted with varied success. At one time, Alfred had so hemmed them 
in, that they were glad to come to terms with him. A treaty was 
entered into, by which the Danes stipulated to depart from the coun- 
try ; but the Danes were not remarkable for keeping their treaties, 
and in this and other instances behaved perfidiously. Fresh hordes 
came over to the assistance of their brethren, and Alfred found him- 
self deserted, or surrounded by men who were too broken-spirited to 
be available against a foe so savage and uncompromising. Under 
such circumstances, he thought it best to retire for a while from the 
contest, and await a more propitious moment to free his country 
from the insatiate locusts who infested it. In the meanest disguise, 
he sought refuge from the fury of his enemies. He concealed him- 
self under a peas-ant's habit, and lived some time in the house of a 
neat-herd who had been intrusted with the care of some of his 

C<AVS. 

The 1 >anes, discovering no traces of Alfred's whereabouts, concluded 
that he bad left the country, or was dead. After a time, they gave 
u|) the pursuit, it was then that the fugitive king began to collect 
some of his followers, and to hope seriously for an opportunity to free 
his country. He ordered his subjects to hold themselves in readiness 
against the enemy, gave them intelligence of his retreat, and suc- 
ceeded in gaining information of the strength and position of the 
Danes. He w;i< deteri 1 1 ii led not to lose tliis final opportunity by 
any rashness or false estimate of the power lie had to cope with. Tn 
order more fully to inform himself of the latter, he entered the camp 
of the chief Dane, disguised as a harper, lie was an admirable 

musician, and, it is said, pos ed much native humor. By the 

exercise of skill and wit, he succeeded in passing unmolested through 
every quarter. Shortly afterwards, he led his troops against the 



THE HEROES OF THE FOUNDERS OF LIBERTY. 103 

enemy, and was completely successful. The Danes begged for peace. 
Those who were already in the country he allowed to remain, on con- 
dition that they and their king should embrace Christianity. Firmly 
established on the throne— which he filled for twenty-nine years — he 
devoted himself to the glory and honor of his country, the propaga- 
tion of religion, and the dissemination of knowledge. Centuries after 
his death, he was known and spoken of as " England's darling." The 
wonderfully balanced intellect of this great man, his holy imparti- 
ality in all matters submitted to his judgment, and the manifest love 
of freedom evidenced in his whole career, entitle him to the fond 
appellation. Speaking of Alfred, Gibbon says : "Amidst the deepest 
gloom of barbarism, the virtue of Antoninus, the learning and valor 
of Caesar, and the legislative genius of Lycurgus shone forth in that 
patriot king." 

Alfred was a pious, God-fearing man. He loved learning and 
those who possessed it. Necessarily, the clergy or bishops were the 
receptacles in which it lay. But, with singular clearness of vision, 
Alfred hesitated to increase the power and influence of the bishops. 
During his reign, they enjoyed fewer privileges and far less political 
power than they had possessed in other reigns. Alfred preferred 
making concessions to the people, rather than to the priests. The 
truth is, that Alfred, whilst he venerated religion and its ministers, 
had none of that superstitious awe which usually accompanies infe- 
rior minds. The liberality of Alfred's views, and his constant distrust 
of the temporal power of the Pope, lead us to agree with Dr. Pauli, 
that he felt and thought more as a German than a Roman Catholic, 
and that in his character were already to be traced the rudiments of 
those opinions which afterwards showed themselves in the independ- 
ence of Protestantism. 

During the reign of Alfred, and for the first time in England, the 
work of practical and political reform was commenced. The admira- 
ble institution of trial by jury was put into execution on a thorough 
basis. There were courts of appeal also established, at which twelve 
freeholders swore to administer impartial justice. Lest corruption 



104 A VOICE TO AMERICA. 

should reach even the presiding magistrate, there was an annual meet- 
ing appointed for the inspection of police, for the inquiry into crimes, 
the correction of abuses in magistrates, and the obliging of every per- 
son to show the district in which he was registered. There was still 
another appeal in default of justice in these courts, namely, to the king 
himself. lie was overwhelmed with petitions from all parts of Eng- 
land, for the people rightly estimated the privilege of appealing to a 
man of such strict impartiality. He was indefatigable in the dispatch 
of these causes, but finding that his time would be entirely consumed 
by their adjudication, he conceived the happy idea of obviating the 
difficulty by correcting the ignorance or corruption of the inferior ma- 
gistrates, lie took care to have his nobility instructed in letters and 
the laws ;* he chose the earls and sheriffs from among the men most 
celebrated for probity and knowledge ; he punished severely all mal- 
versation in office,! and he removed all the earls whom he found un- 
equal to the trust. The better to guide the magistrates in the ad- 
ministration of justice, he collected a body of laws for their study, 
which long served for the basis of English jurisprudence, and was 
the origin of what is now denominated the common law.J The re- 
sult of these admirable precautions was perfect security to the indivi- 
dual, and a greater amount of freedom than had ever before been en- 
joyed. So exacl was the character of the inhabitants, and so unfail- 
ing the arm of justice, thai if is Baid thai Alfred, by way of bravado, 
hung up golden bracelets by the wayside, confident that no man would 
touch them.g Under his beneficent rule, learning and literature took 
firm hold of the minds of the people. He was himself an ardent stu- 
dent, and contributed in no small degree to the enlightenment of 
the age in which he lived. That he might have time to-attend to 
his multifarious duties, be divided the day into three equal portions: 
one was employed in sleep, and the refection of his body bj diet and 
xcise; another, in the dispatch of business; a third, in study and 
devotion.] Thus although he often Labored under great bodily in- 

* A- + Lc Miroir do Justice. % Hume. 

§ William of Malmsbury. \ Hume. 



THE HEKOES OF THE FOUNDERS OF LIBERTY. 105 

firmity,* this martial hero, who fought in person fifty-six battles by 
sea and land,f was able during a life of no extraordinary length to ac- 
quire more knowledge, and even to compose more books, than most 
studious men. He died in the vigor of his age, and the full strength 
of his faculties, A. D. 901, after a reign of twenty-nine years and a half. 

In presenting to our readers this sketch of the life of one of the 
most interesting heroes of history, we do so in the belief that it is in- 
structive and gratifying to trace to such a noble Saxon fountain-head, 
the first indications of a political liberty which has since culminated 
so practicably and sublimely in the American descendants of this 
same Anglo-Saxon stock. It is contrary to our intention to take the 
history of England as our only key to political freedom. Other na- 
tions have furnished their quota to the general aggregate. But it 
cannot be too often impressed, or too tenaciously remembered, that ah 
the solid practical fundamental principles of freedom which prevail 
among us, have been transplanted from the mother country. What 
ever may be the political jealousies which irritate the two nations — 
America and England — and they are aggravated enough, there can 
be no justification of national hatred. The English trace all their 
political freedom to the Germanic element. We must do the same. 
The life of Alfred furnishes us with an illustration of the necessity for 
this justice. To that illustrious hero we are indebted for the restitu- 
tion of trial by jury, and the condensation of a legal practice, now 
familiarized to us by the title of Common Law. 

The necessity for reasonable brevity prohibits Our dwelling on the 
successive acquisitions of political freedom by the people. Only the 
prominent triumphs can be glanced at. 

The Saxon rule in England terminated with the death of Harold — 
the last of the Saxon kino-s. Feudal or Norman rule succeeded. The 
Normans, a tribe of Northern Germans, after they had subdued the 
provinces of the Roman Empire, established the feudal as the best 
system of government. Great change of circumstances rendered it 
necessary for them to deviate from many of the established customs 

* Asser. t William of Malmsbury. 






106 A VOICE TO AMERICA. 

of their native Germany, but they retained all those which were com 
patible with their new situation. 

The feudal government was simply a confederacy of independent 
warriors. The chief or head of this confederacy was chosen from the 
rest on account of his valor ; his glory and strength consisted in the 
number of suffrages he could thus command. Under certain con- 
ditions of society the feudal system of government was undoubtedly 
beneficial, especially when based, as was the Germanic, on theoretical 
principles of liberty, which after all have only been more practically 
applied in after generations. On the acquisition of fresh territory by 
the chief, it was customary to apportion it out among the nobles who 
had assisted in its conquest. The conditions imposed on the latter 
were, that they should hold these grants in trust for the crown. If 
military service were needed, they were required to repair to the field 
with a certain number of retainers. The peculiarity of their tenure 
rendered it necessary for the nobles to maintain a large retinue. In 
process of time these military establishments became immensely pow- 
erful. The nobles erected fortresses, castles, and other improvements, 
and thus in an indirect way acquired a kind of hereditary right to the 
lands which they merely held in trust. At length this hereditary 
claim became recognized, and all that was asked from the nobles was 
occasional military assistance when it was needed, and at other times 
tin- payment of some trifling dues. Thus the authority of the sov- 
ereign gradually decayed, and each noble, secure in his own territory, 
became too powerful and too dangerous to be turned out by an or- 
der of the sovereign. The interests of the nobles being reciprocal, 
there was no possibility of obtaining a combination against any one 
of the body. But, on the other hand, there was a certainty of a strong 
combination againsl the sovereign if he sought in any way to en- 
croach on the privileges of the nobles. Such an instance occurred 
in the reiim of King John, and resulted in the humiliation of the 
monarch and the triumph of the nobles. There is an old sayings 

that when rogues fall out honesl ] pie get their rights. In the case 

of the Magna Charta this was signally illustrated. 



THE HEROES OF THE FOUNDERS OF LIBERTY. 10'7 

This important document, to which the Auglo-Saxon race owes so 
much of its freedom, renders it necessary for us to introduce that con- 
temptibly weak prince, King John, to our readers as one of the heroes 
of political liberty. He was the instrument wielded by the strong 
arm of right, and although paltry and insignificant in himself, was 
important to the triumph of the moment. In dignifying King John 
even with this importance, we feel some reluctance. ' But he Avas the 
man who conceded, who had the power to concede the Great Charter. 
The barons who extorted that great national boon from him, were in 
no respect greater heroes than he. They were actuated by purely 
personal motives, exactly as he w r as. The concession of the Great 
Charter affords another illustration of the truth of the dogma, that 
" out of evil cometh good." 

King John, having disgusted his people with his cowardice and 
duplicity, succeeded in offending the Pope, for which piece of pleas- 
antry he was excommunicated. In those days of superstition and 
Pope-worship, an excommunication from Eome was a grave calamity. 
For a while John tried fiercely to retaliate, but he was already so odious 
with his people, that he could obtain but little sympathy. He was 
compelled to bow submission to the Papal supremacy. With the 
usual instincts of a coward, he was not content with submission. He 
thought it necessary to conciliate. Amongst other monstrous things, 
he assigned his kingdom to the Pope, and relinquished all claims to 
ecclesiastical power. Having secured, as he imagined, the powerful 
influence of the Pope, he determined to revenge himself on his barons, 
imagining, with perfect justice, that they were not well disposed to- 
wards him. Contemptible natures always nourish some idea of re- 
venge, if at any future time they think they may have an opportunity 
to gratify it. Petty persecutions and gross outrages were the wea- 
pons used by John. The barons rebelled. The king desired to know 
what they w r anted. They sent a schedule containing a list of their 
principal demands. It was no sooner showed to the king than he 
burst into a furious passion. He asked why they did not demand from 
him his kingdom, and swore that he would never grant them liber- 






108 A \'<>ICE TO AMERICA. 

ties, which, if granted, would make him a slave. Neither daunted 
by the fury nor the oath of the king, the barons forthwith levied war 
against him. The besieged him in his castle, and drove him to such 
straits, that he was at length left with a poor retinue of seven 
knights. lie was compelled to submit at discretion. 

Between Windsor and Staines, in England, is a green spot called 
Runnymede : it has changed but little since the days of King John, 
and the Englishman points to it with reverence as one of the shrines 
of political liberty. It was there that King John met the Barons, and 
signed and sealed the famous deed called the Great Charter. We 
need scarcely refer to* this document at length. It is sufficient to 
say, that it restored many Saxon laws and usages (which had, under 
the Norman rule, sunk into abeyance), and for the first time extended 
equal rights to the vassals as to the lords. It is generally esteemed 
the foundation of modern political liberty, and was so considered by 
the early founders of our own republic, who made repeated reference 
to it in time of trouble. At all events, it has remained for some 
centuries the most quotable text of Liberty, and to the present day 
- as the basis of more comprehensive legislation. 

Nations, like individuals, experience emotions of gratitude. Give 
them something they can vain.', and they will prize it thankfully for 
Centuries. The Magna Charta was a --'.vat boon; unquestionably 
radical in its .lay, sufficient in its operations, and liberal in its pro- 
visions. For several subsequent centuries nothing more was asked. 
The people were content to enjoy what they had, and to prepare 
themselves for more. It is in these periods of civil rest that con- 
summate ideas of political freedom dawn in the future of history. 
Men have time to think. They arrive at certain fixed principles of 
justice and liberty. When the time comes for enunciating these 
principle-, they have acquired all the weight and importance of priv- 
ileges, and must inevitably be i 1 as such. Thus, after the 
signing of the Magna Charta by John, we find a period of thoughtful 
repose. The ideas promulgated in that instrument were fermenting 
in men's minds. Many heroes— lacking only the .-samp of success — 



THE HEROES OF THE FOUNDERS OF LIBERTY. i09 

essayed with untimely zeal to extend the area of popular freedom. 
The lives of these men afford ample material for the biographer, and 
instructive lessons for the world. Our limits prevent any special 
reference to these worthies. Details must be sought in the contem- 
porary works of history. To the dispassionate republican, there will 
always be an attraction in the lives of men who have striven for 
liberty, even if the means they adopted were erroneous, and provoked 
by hate and party zeal. William Wallace, Jack Cade, Monmouth, 
Wat Tyler, and others, were men who raised a bold front against 
oppression, and thus achieved a niche in the many-colored Pantheon 
of Liberty. 

Notwithstanding the concession of the Great Charter, Liberty had 
two fundamental difficulties to contend with for a long time. First, 
the feudal despotism of the nobles ; and secondly, the gradual increase 
of the Papal power. As an illustration of the former, we may refer 
to the well-known incident of Lord Warren, who, when questioned 
as to his title to certain lands, drew his sword, and said that was his 
title, let who would dispute it. As an illustration of overspreading 
Papal power, we have the exhibition of a great emperor,* clothed in 
sackcloth and barefooted before the palace of the Pope, standing 
there for three bitter winter days, suing for mercy. These incidents 
furnish us with an insight into the real possession of power in those 
days, and indicate quite clearly the shoals and quicksands on which 
the frail bark Political Liberty was likely to strand. Against these 
two evils then, Feudal and Papal power, the popular energies were 
long directed. Men's thoughts invested them with a thousand hideous 
shapes, and made them more horrible and momentous than they 
really were. In process of time it became quite plain, that whatever 
advanced the authority of either was, on the whole, unfavorable to 
the interests of mankind. Any thing of a contrary tendency was 
watched and examined with the greatest anxiety, for it gave the hope 
of future improvement. 

It is unnecessary to dwell on the evils of an aggravated feudal 

* Henry IV. of Germany. 
6 



110 A VOICE TO AMERICA. 

system, or how they were slowly removed. It is sufficient for us to 
mention the establishment of privileged or free cities, communities, 
and corporations, which, in course of time, fostered a thriving com- 
merce, and benefited the poorer class of the people, by drawing them 
off from the retinues of the nobles. As these towns and cities in- 
creased in importance, so did the inhabitants. They became mate- 
rially leagued with the Crown, and the power of the Barons was thus 
assailed from without. In addition to this, the number of retainers 
being diminished, their absolute power and political importance began 
slowly to crumble.* In the war of the Holy Sepulchre, and after- 
wards in the wars of the Roses, the feudal Barons were decimated 
and nearly exterminated. As they disappeared, the lower and mid- 
dle classes obtained more importance and consideration. As for the 
Papal power, that melted slowly but surely away in the brightening 
light of knowledge. 

In the interval which we are now bridging, liberal ideas were be- 
ginning to be entertained with some earnestness. There was a con- 
stant struggle between prerogative and privilege, for the people be- 
gan to entertain a dim perception of their rights. Many concessions 
were already made, and society settled down into well-defined limits, 
to break beyond which would be dangerous. 'Burgesses were sum- 
moned by Leicester, at the close of the reign of Henry III. (1265), to 
attend a parliamenl in London. These burgesses were selected from 
an order of men who, up to thai time, had been always regarded as 
too mean to enjoy a place in the national councils. 1; was Leicester's 
policy to anticipate this concession, which the urgency of the people 
had already made inevitable. In the reign of Edward the III., the 
knights of the shire ami the burgesses emerged into a separate house, 
and became what is now called the House of Commons. A vital prin- 
ciple began to animate ilie mass — the principle of self-government. 
Intelligence, spirit, and dignity inspired men with a knowledge of 
their own importance. 

In the reign of Elizabeth (and indeed in several earlier ones), we 

Smith's Wealth of Nations, 8d Book. 



THE HEROES OF THE FOUNDERS OF LIBERTY. Ill 

find the monarch jealous of the privileges of the Commons, and claim- 
ing a royal prerogative in matters which the latter had taken under 
their especial charge. Whatever concerned the royal prerogative was 
considered by Elizabeth as forbidden ground, and she included with- 
in this description every thing that related to religion, to her particu- 
lar courts, and to the succession to the crown ; she insisted, in her 
own words, " that no bills touching matters of state or reformation in 
concerns ecclesiastical should be exhibited."* Pretensions of this 
character were not likely to pass current with men who already had 
a clear perception of their own rights and their own power. It was 
evident that a collision must sooner or later take place between the 
queen and her " faithful commons," for notwithstanding Elizabeth's 
remarkable popularity, there was a stern class of thinking men who 
remained proof to her blandishments, and thought more of liberty to 
the people than gallantry to the queen. 

Such a man was Peter Wentworth. In this uncompromising but 
loyal old Puritan, we have a perfect type of the stock which peopled 
the Eastern portions of our own country. Fearless, clear-headed, honest, 
and loyal, he was not only capable of asserting the privileges of the 
house, but of impressing others with the exactness of his definition of 
them. The event which drew Wentworth out was a commission 
issued by the queen, directing the speaker to stop a discussion in the 
house, and giving orders that in future " no bills concerning religion 
should be preferred or received into that house, unless the same should 
be first considered and approved of by the clergy." This interference 
on the part of the queen elicited a speech from Wentworth, in which he 
maintained that the house was assembled to make or abrogate such 
laws as were for the surety, safe-keeping, and enrichment of the no- 
ble realm of England. It was necessary for this purpose to preserve 
such advantages by free speech : without this it were a scorn and 
mockery to call the parliament a place of free speech. It was noth- 
ing but " a very school of flattery and dissimulation, and so a fit place 
to serve the devil and his angels in, and to glorify God and benefit 

* Cobbett. 



112 A VOICE TO AMERICA. 

the commonwealth. Waxing still more bold, lie went on to say, 
"that to avoid everlasting death and condemnation, with the high 
and mighty God, we ought to proceed in every cause according to 
the matter, and not according to the prince's mind." In a similar 
strain of independent protest and argument, the patriot dwelt on the 
nn— age of the queen, giving the house and her majesty some sound 
advice and admonition. It was not altogether acceptable to either, 
for, before Wentworth had finished, the house stopped him. lie v\as 
sequestered for # said speech, and had to answer for it before a special 
committee. All that passed is singularly noble. "I do promise you 
all," said tin- intrepid patriot, "if God forsake me not, that I will 
never during life hold my tongue if any message is sent wherein God 
is dishonored, the prince perilled, or the liberties of the parliament 
impeached." Wentworth was committed to prison ; a fate which 
did not surprise him. In his examination before a committee, he 
observed : " I do assure your honors, that twenty times and more, 
when I walked in my grounds, revolving this speech, to prepare ■ 
against this day, my own fearful conceit did say unto me that this 
speech would carry me to the place whither I shall now go, and fear 
would have moved me to put it out. Then I weighed whether in 
good conscience, and the duty of a faithful subject, I might keep 
myself out of prison, and not to want my prince from walking in 
a dangerous course. My conscience said unto me, that I could not 
be a faithful subject it' I did more respect to avoid my own danger 
than my prince's danger: berewithal I was made bold, and went for- 
ward, as your honors heard ; yet when I uttered these words in the 
house, that there was none without fault — no! not our noble queen ; 
I paused, and beheld all your countenances, and saw plainly that 
those Words did amaze you all. Then tear hade me put out the 
words that followed, tor your countenances did ;is-uiv me that not 
one of you would stay me of my journey. But I spake it, and I 
praise (rod for it." 

Wenjbworth was committed to the Tower, but Elizabeth was far 
too politic to allow such a man to become a martyr to the cause of 






THE HEROES OF THE FOUNDERS OF LIBERTY. 113 

popular freedom. After a month's incarceration she remitted the 
sentence. The toadies of the house held forth hugely on the divine 
leniency of the queen, -with which Wentworth may or may not have 
been impressed. Certain it is, that eleven years afterwards he was 
so dissatisfied with further encroachments on ( the privileges of the 
house, that he prepared in writing 'a series of tough queries, which 
he handed to the speaker. One of these was couched in the follow- 
ing words : " Whether there be any council which can make, add 
to, or diminish from the laws of this realm, but only this council of 
parliament." It was reserved for another century, in which other 
men of Wentworth's calibre were the actors, to answer this vital 
question. Much trial and tribulation were undergone before the 
people's indignant negative was recorded in the bloody scrolls of 
history. To that period we will now hasten. 

The most momentous political occurrence of the sixteenth century 
was that which provoked the document called the Petition of Rights. 
This was the commencement of that memorable epoch, since denom- 
inated the English Revolution, and which, resulting in the execution 
of Charles the First, and the Protectorate of Oliver Cromwell, effected 
in a remarkable degree the early characteristics of this country. It 
was in this epoch that the word Puritan was first used. It stood for 
the appellation of three parties, all of them opposed to the intoler- 
ance of King Charles's reign. There were the political Puritans, 
who maintained the highest principles of civil liberty ; the Puritans 
in discipline, who were averse to the ceremonies and Episcopal gov- 
ernment of the Church ; and the doctrinal Puritans who rigidly de- 
fended the speculative system of the first reformers.* 

During two preceding reigns, the English people, as we have seen, 
had been gradually imbibing sentiments of enlarged political and 
religious freedom. Elizabeth, with a tact for which she was remark- 
able, conceded what was necessary. But imbecile James lacked 
the talent and the inclination to appreciate the wants of his .people. 
In the midst of difficulties, dissensions, and civil commotions, and at a 

* Hume. 



114 A VOICE TO AMERICA. 

time when practical common sense was especially demanded, he 
wrote and published an elaborate work on the divine right of kings. 
The object of this ridiculous production was, to prove that kings 
could do no wrong ; that their prerogative was from Heaven ; and 
that any encroachment on it was flagrant heresy ! James's par- 
liament soon became refractory. Public disapprobation increased 
with fearful rapidity. The king endeavored to get on without a 
parliament, and succeeded for a while in raising funds for the State 
exchequer. But there was great indignation, and the grievances of 
the nation were all converging to a crisis. King James died on the 
27th March, 1625. Under his weak rule, the spirit of liberty had 
grown strong, and had become equal to a great contest.* 

Charles I. succeeded to the throne. He was unlike his father 
in many respects; but he was false, imperious, obstinate, narrow- 
minded, ignorant of the temper of his people, unobservant of the 
signs of the timcs,f and firm in the determination to protect what he 
conceived to be the prerogatives of the Crown. The spirit of reform 
had grown strong and muscular, but he thought he could strangle it 
with his weak hands. Failing in this, he tried, as the next best thing, 
to chastise it. Parliaments wore assembled at the king's pleasure, 
and dissolved the moment they were found to be intractable. In 
consequence of the extreme difficulty with which the king raised 
supplies, he determined to resort to the illegal process <>t' imposing a 
forced loan on the kingdom, thus subvening the entire object and 
usefulness of the House of Commons. Great numbers resisted this 
unjustifiable imposition, for which they were immediately thrown into 
prison. Foiled in his purpose, the long had once more to assemble 
parliament, and as a accessary consequence, one of the first discus- 
sions was on the late illegal proceedings of the Crown. The result 
of their discussions was, the documenl called the Petition of Right, 
so called because, although drawn up in the usual strain of a humble 
petition, it had all the force of a law on the king's endorsement of 
his concurrence. This document, which is justly considered the 

* Macaulay. t Ibid. 






THE HEROES OF THE FOUNDERS OF LIBERTY. 115 

second Great Charter of English liberty, was drawn up by Sir Ed- 
ward Coke in the eighty-third year of his age. It was the last act 
of a brilliant judicial career, and is a lasting monument to Coke's 
patriotism and genius. It provided that no tax or loan might be 
levied except with the concurrence of parliament ; that no man 
might be imprisoned but by legal process ; that soldiers might not 
be quartered on people contrary to their will ; and that no commis- 
sions be granted for executing martial law .* A few days after the 
receipt of the petition, the king returned an evasive answer. A dis- 
cussion immediately ensued in the House of Commons. Among the 
eminent men who took part in it were Sir John Eliot, John Hamp- 
den, and John Pym ; heroic names that adorn the brightest pages of 
political history. 

Sir John Eliot spoke with dignity and fervor. " His mind," says 
Lord Nugent, " was deeply imbued with a love of philosophy and a 
confidence in religion, which gave a lofty tone to his eloquence." 
The effect of the debate was so seriously damaging to the king, and 
particularly to his pampered minister, Buckingham, that he could no 
longer withhold his consent to the Petition of Right. He gave it 
with surly remorse, but with a mental reservation that he would be 
avenged on the men who had extorted it from him. He again dis- 
solved parliament, and determined to rule in his own right, without 
their aid or assistance. Two days later, he committed Sir John Eliot 
and other members to the Tower, on a charge of high treason. 
Servile courts sustained him in this flagrant breach of privilege and 
violation of the Petition of Right. But he was inexorable, and Eliot 
remained in prison — doomed to die a martyr in the cause of political 
liberty. After two years of wearisome confinement, his health began 
to fail. He petitioned for the privilege of a temporary release, that 
he might recuperate his sinking energies. But the king demanded 
concessions from him which, as an honest, high-purposed man, he 
could not make. Another year, passed in suffering and cruelty, ter- 
minated his life. He died in November, 1G32. The vengeance of 

* Goodrich. 



116 A VOICE TO AMERICA. 

the kins continued even after his death. One of Sir John Eliot's 
sons petitioned for the privilege of interring the body in a distant 
county. The ting replied, " Let him be buried in the parish where 
he died." Truly, Charles was one of those monarchs destined by 
Divine Providence to hasten revolutions. 

All the promises of the king were violated ; the Petition of Ptight 
forgotten ; persecutions and exactions of the worst kind inflicted, 
particularly with regard to the Puritans. The king, who was a zealot 
for Church discipline, looked upon the Puritans with all the concen- 
trated bitterness and hatred of his treacherous nature. They were 
forced to fly from the country. They were whipped, imprisoned, 
scourged, and mutilated. " But the cruelty of the oppressor could 
not tire out the fortitude of the victims. The mutilated defenders of 
liberty again defied the vengeance of the Star Chamber, — came back 
with undiminished resolution to the place of their glorious infamy, 
and manfully presented the stumps of their ears to be grubbed out 
by the hangman's knife."* 

Jolm Hampden was a member of the House of Commons, and, 
like others before referred to, opposed the assessment of the forced 
loan. That he did so from the highest patriotic motives, is beyond 
question. The sum at which he was assessed was a mere trifle, and 
he was a man of wealth. For this contumacy he was imprisoned. 
After ihr passing of the Petition of Right, he was released; and we 
do not find him taking an active part in public attains, until the gov- 
ernment — that is, the king — again attempted an unwarrantable exac- 
tion. A writ was issued, commanding the city of London to man 
and equip ships of war for his service. Similar writs were issued, 
not only for the seaboard counties, but the inland ones. This exces- 
sive abuse of authority created the greatest excitement. Xo prece- 
dent could be found, in the legislation of any other king, for such an 
oppressive system of taxation. 

Buckinghamshire — of which county Hampden was a native — w\as 
assessed for a ship of the value of four thousand live hundred pounds. 

* Macaulay. 



THE HEROES OF THE FOUNDERS OF LIBERTY. 117 

The individual portions of this assessment were necessarily small, but 
every shilling- subscribed towards the aggregate was the recognition 
of a pernicious principle. Hampden at once refused to pay his por- 
tion, and determined at all hazards to bring the matter to a crisis. 
Before this time, " he was rather of reputation in his own county, 
than of public discourse or fame in the kingdom ; but then he grew 
the argument of all tongues, every man inquiring who and what he 
was that durst, at his own charge, support the liberty and prosperity 
of the kingdom."* 

Hampden, as the representative of the people, tried the question 
of the illegal assessment, in the Exchequer Chamber, before all the 
judges of England. The fear of court displeasure possessed the 
bench ; only four of the judges had sufficient courage to declare in 
Hampden's favor, although the law was clearly on his side. The 
remaining eight were in favor of the writ. Thus, so far as the law 
was concerned, justice was denied to Hampden, and, through his per- 
son, to the people. The result of this decision was, to place at the 
disposal of the Crown the whole property of the English nation.f A 
defeated man receives but little consideration from a despot. Hamp- 
den was not long in discovering that his person was scarcely safe from 
the fury of the king. Opposed to violence, and desiring, of all things, 
to save his country from the miseries of civil war, he determined to 
flee to a distant land, where, at least, he would be beyond the reach 
of oppressors. Beyond the Atlantic ocean, a few persecuted Puritans 
had founded a settlement, in Connecticut. Thither he determined 
to flee. He secured passage in a sailing vessel, and completed his 
arrangements for permanently vacating the land of his birth. Among 
others who arrived at a similar determination, were Oliver Cromwell 
and John Pym. This illustrious trio, so soon destined to convulse 
society, were on the point of sailing, when an order from the king 
intercepted the vessel. It seems that, although the king did not care 
to crush Hampden whilst public feeling was in its present state, he 
was yet unwilling to let him escape. He had sufficient penetration 

* Clarendon. t Macaulay. 

6* 



118 A VOICE TO AMERICA. 

to know that the fearless nature of the man would soon display itself, 
and lie was content to wait. 

In the next parliament, Hampden took his seat for his native shire, 
and thenceforth devoted himself entirely to the affairs of the nation. 
He was now unquestionably the most popular man in England. The 
king affected respect for him, but hated him bitterly. A message 
was sent to the House for fresh supplies. It was couched in the 
usual language of promise. Redress for grievances was the boon. 
The Commons had experienced the king's treachery, and were de- 
termined, in this case, to get what redress they needed first. On the 
next day, with an angry speech the king dissolved parliament. Such 
an act indicated, with very impolitic clearness, that the king expected 
the Commons to do precisely as he wished, or he would not allow 
them to sit at all. 

The necessities of the king, after a most inglorious campaign in 
Scotland, compelled him to assemble parliament once more. On the 
3d of November, 1G40, the Commons met. It is a memorable day 
in history, being the first of what is now universally known as the 
Long Parliament — a parliament which, as Macaulay forcibly ex- 
presses it, was destined to every extreme of fortune: to empire and 
to servitude, — to glory and to contempt ;• at one time the sovereign 
of its sovereign, — at another time, the servant of its servants, and the 
tool of its tools. The first session of this memorable parliament was 
spent in actively redressing public grievances. All those who had 
assisted in subverting the laws, including the judges who had offici- 
ated on Hampden's trial, were tried. The prime minister, Strafford, 
was executed; and other prominent characters, to escape a similar 
fate, fled the country in alarm. 

The conduct of Hampden during this crisis was moderate, manly, 
and peaceful. Se was opposed to extreme measures, apprehending 
a reaction. He seemed disposed to soothe rather than excite the 
public mind.* The king, humiliated and crest-fallen, had taken re- 
fuge from obloquy in Scotland. II; npden was dispatched by the 

* Clarenn a. 



THE HEROES OF THE FOUNDERS OF LIBERTY. 119 

parliament to visit hirn there. During his absence, measures of an 
extreme character were enacted, and what Hampden had wisely 
dreaded came to pass. A reactionary party sprung lip, formed of 
men who thought that enough had been done, and that possibly too 
much might be attempted. Encouraged by these new manifesta- 
tions, Charles returned. All that was now necessary for the perma- 
nence of his crown was, that he should abstain from treachery, from 
violence, from gross breaches of the law.* 

This was expecting too much from a man so abject, cowardly, and 
treacherous. With his usual volubility he promised every thing, 
and with his customary duplicity, violated all his promises. Without 
the slightest intimation of displeasure, he impeached several of the 
leading members of the house. Hampden and Pym were of course 
among the number. Such an instance of perfidious tyranny was 
unparalleled. The House of Commons refused to surrender their 
members, maintaining that the impeachment coming from the House 
of Peers was unconstitutional. Not to be defeated in his purpose, 
the king, accompanied by two hundred soldiers of his guard, made a 
descent on the house with the intention of seizing the contumacious 
members by force. They had been previously warned of their dan- 
ger, and had fled to a populous district of London, where they were 
sure of the sympathies of the citizens. A proclamation was issued 
by the king, directing that no person should harbor the fugitives, 
but it came too late. The spark had been ignited, and the explosion 
followed with fearful rapidity. 

The tramp of armed citizens was heard in every corner of the 
great city. AH the societies turned out in battle array. A careful 
watch was kept on every approach leading to the neighborhood in 
which Hampden and Pym lay. Every one, from the youngest ap- 
prentice to the oldest merchant, was on the alert to avenge the insult 
ottered to their liberty. After a short delaj^ the members were in- 
vited, in defiance of the king's proclamation, to attend their seats in 
the House of Commons. The immense population of London turned 

* Macaulay. 



120 A VOICE TO AMERICA. 

out en masse to escort them in triumph past the windows of the 
palace. "On the 11th January," says Macaulay, "the Thames was 
covered with boats, and its shores with a gazing multitude. Armed 
vessels, decorated with streamers, were ranged in two lines from Lon- 
don Bridge to Westminster Hall. The members returned by water 
in a ship, manned by sailors who had volunteered their services. 
The train bands of the city, under the command of the sheriffs, 
marched along the Strand, attended by a vast crowd of spectators, to 
guard the avenues to the House of Commons, and thus with shouts, 
and loud discharges of ordnance, the accused patriots were brought 
back by the people whom they had served, and for whom they had 
suffered." On the day preceding this great demonstration, the king 
fled. The excitement was not confined to London only. Through- 
out the provinces the people were agitated in a like manner. Buck- 
inghamshire dispatched a deputation of four thousand freeholders 
to defend the person of their beloved representative, and other coun- 
ties did the same. The crisis had indeed come. 

It was evident that the king could no longer be trusted. The 
only way to prevent his doing injury t.o the liberal cause, w^as to de- 
prive him of the power. A fearful struggle was inevitable. The 
king was already in the field with a numerous retinue. 

Hampden was a man who loved peace, so long as peace could be 
honorably maintained; but he was not a man to be daunted by the 
flashing of hostile swords. He had been the consistent advocate of 
moderation. Whilst the laws could be appealed to for redress, he 
was content to depend on their efficacy. Finding them utterly use- 
less, he prepared to leave his country. Foiled in this endeavor, he 
boldly faced the evils of the day. Almost exacting a representative 
privilege, he took on himself the grievances of his countrymen, and 
battled for them with unflinching valor. Thus when recent events 
had made civil war imperative, we find Hampden stepping into the 
foremost place with unconscious activity and bravery. He placed a 
large portion of his fortune at the service of parliament; raised, 
armed, and. at his own expense, equipp< d a regiment of Buckingham- 



THE HEROES OF THE FOUNDERS OF LIBERTY. 121 

sliire cavalry, and took his place at their head as colonel. Military 
discipline — usually so obnoxious to civilians — fell on him like a gar- 
ment. He was ever on the alert, and never missed an opportunity 
that might be improved by intrepidity and activity. It is not easy 
to do full justice to the admirable rapidity of Hampden's movements. 
He was constantly in the saddle, and really seemed ubiquitous. A 
lampoon aimed at him by a political opponent is immensely funny at 
his incessant journeys between Windsor and the House of Commons. 
He was constantly hurrying from the field to the house. 

It would be an endless task to recapitulate these events of the 
civil war in which Hampden took a conspicuous part. It must suffice 
that wherever there was an opportunity for displaying an unselfish 
patriotism, there he was found. Unhappily his career of usefulness 
was not destined to be of long duration. On the 18th of June, 1G43, 
Hampden gathered his men at Chalgrove for the purpose of cutting 
off the retreat of a band of cavaliers who had been on a foraging 
excursion. A fierce conflict ensued. In the charge, Hampden re- 
ceived his death-wound — inflicted by two bullets in the shoulder. 
With head drooping and hands leaning on his horse's neck, he rode 
faintly from the field of battle. After several days of intense physical 
suffering, the shadows of death thickened round his pillow. With 
invincible fortitude he dispatched what public business most demanded 
his attention. When his last national duties were discharged, he 
calmly prepared himself to die. He asked for the consolation of the 
Holy Sacrament, and it was administered to him. When the hand 
of death lay coldly on him, he murmured short prayers for the cause 
in which he perished. " Lord Jesus, receive my soul-^-O Lord, save 
my country — Lord, be merciful to" — . In that broken sentence 
passed away a man whose every act was one of unselfish patriotism 
and unconscious virtue ; a man whose life is of such refulgent bright- 
ness, that time will in vain seek to dim its lustre. 

John Pym, who was intimately associated with Hampden in all 
the important events of this epoch, was born of good parents in 
Somersetshire, in the year 1584. He received his education at Ox- 



122 A VOICE TO AMERICA. 

ford, and at an early age received an appointment in the office of the 
Exchequer. He was distinguished for his eloquence, and knowledge 
of the common law. He served in several parliaments during the 
latter part of the reign of James I., as member for Tavistock, and in 
all those held in the reign of Charles I. He distinguished himself 
by his zeal in defending the rights of the people against the aggres- 
sions of royalty. In 1626 he was one of the principal managers of 
the impeachment against Buckingham. After the opening of the 
Long Parliament, Pym took an active part in the vigorous legislation 
of that tribunal. He classed the grievances of the nation under three 
heads : Privilege of Parliament, Religion, Liberty of the Subject. 
The termination of this consideration resulted in the impeachment 
and execution of Strafford. The latter was at one time attached to 
the popular side, but became an apostate to the court. When he 
had determined on acting thus treacherously, he sent for Pym, and 
endeavored by specious arguments to win him to a similar line of 
conduct. Pym listened to him impatiently for a while, then turning 
on him furiously said, " You need not use all this art to tell me that 
you are going to be uudone : but remember, that though you leave 
us now, I will never leave you while your head is upon your shoul- 
ders." He k<q»t his word too. 

To appreciate the services of Pym, it is necessary to realize the 
peculiar characteristics of the age in which he lived. Government 
was subverted by the treachery of the king, and the unscrupulous 
co-operation of his minions. In the effort to restore the privileges 
of parliament, and thereby the liberty of the subject, great personal 
courage and invincible integrity were demanded. By intimidation 
or by corruption, all the reformers were silenced, that were capable 
of ignominious silence. Only those who entertained genuine senti- 
ments of patriotism, — men who recognized danger as an element of 
their success, — were able to withstand the alternate bullying and 
flattery of the court. A conspicuous member of the House of Com- 
mons, like Pym, excited peculiar hatred. His life was in constant 
danger. Any one of the many high-handed outrages of the king 



THE HEROES OF THE FOUNDERS OF LIBERTY. 123 

might Lave placed Pym's head upon the block. But he did not 
swerve from the path of duty. Threats and bribes were alike unavail- 
ing. With fearless energy and burning eloquence, he denounced the 
oppressors — never once looked back, but with eyes sternly fixed on 
the future, righted what was wrong. The impeachments of the Long 
Parliament were conducted mainly by Pym ; and in consequence, 
more than an ordinary share of danger attended, his proceedings. 
For these and other reasons, he is justly estimated one of England's 
worthies, and one who in no slio-ht degree contributed to the estab- 
lishment of political liberty. 

The hostilities between the soldiers of the people and the soldiers 
of the king, now assumed the grave form of a civil war. Charles, 
as we have already stated, sought refuge in the camp of the Scots — 
a people thoroughly enamored of monarchical institutions, but influ- 
enced, at this crisis, by considerations of a religious character. Had 
Charles possessed the tact to conciliate their Presbyterian spirit, or 
even to abandon some of his own Episcopalian dogmas, he could 
undoubtedly have depended on the valor and loyalty of his Scotch 
adherents. As it was, they basely sold him to the parliament. 

At this stage of civil discord, there appeared a man who must ever 
absorb attention. Suddenly emerging from pursuits of a quiet agri- 
cultural character, Oliver Cromwell darts through the pages of history 
like a fierce meteor. It is only of late years that his real character 
has begun to be understood. The patient industry and impartiality 
of Carlyle have been effectual to rescue the memory of this great 
hero from the obloquy with which it had so long been covered. 

Oliver Cromwell was born at Huntingdon, England, in 1599. He 
was descended of a well-born family. " I was by birth," said Crom- 
well, in one of his speeches to parliament, " neither living in any 
considerable height, nor yet in obscurity." Oliver's education was 
commenced at the grammar-school of his native tow T n, and completed 
at Sydney Sussex College, Cambridge. He appears to have been 
wild and roystering during the youthful portion of his life. In 1620 
he returned home, was married, and took up his position as the re- 



124 A VOICE TO AMERICA. 

spectable head of a household. About this time lie became oppressed 
by convictions of conscience almost amounting to insanity. He sat 
about retrieving some of his former errors ; made himself bankrupt 
by paying back sums of money he had formerly won at play ; and 
declared that he was ready to make restitution to any whom he had 
wronged. The persecuted Puritans found a welcome refuge beneath 
his roof. In the third parliament of Charles I., he sat as the repre- 
sentative of his native town ; and although not a prominent actor 
in the events of that period, was a keen and anxious observer of what 
transpired. 

After the parliament had been dissolved, Cromwell returned to 
St. Ives (a town in the vicinity of Huntingdon), and for five years 
w 7 as a grazing farmer. His demeanor was characterized by religious 
severity. There is now no reasonable doubt for supposing that it was 
insincere. " He had certainly materials enough for reflection. Xot 
to speak of the inward conflicts of his own mind — conflicts arising 
from the views of truth he had been recently led to take — deep, 
earnest, heaven-born impulses — society round him was raging like a 
volcano. * * * * The writs of ship-money had been issued, and 
Hampden had stood resolute in its refusal. The thunder-storm was 
rising."* 

The moment for action arrived, and Cromwell, feeling himself in- 
spired for great actions, did not longer hesitate. When the attempt 
to seize the live members was made by Charles, he rushed at once 
to the rescue. His influence, his purse, his sword, were at the nation's 
call. He was appointed captain, and, soon after, colonel of the 
sixty-seventh troop of the parliamentary forces. But he was dissat- 
isfied with the troops. "Thf} were," he complained, "old decayed 
serving-men, and tapsters, and such kind of fellows." To organize a 
different corps was with him a simultaneous thought and action. The 
members of this corps were men who, stimulated by similar religious 
zeal as Cromwell, were prepared to understand and appreciate his 
acts. "I had rather have a plain russet-coated captain," he said, 

* Trial 1. 



THE HEROES OF THE FOUNDERS OF LIBERTY. 125 

" that knows what he fights for, and loves what he knows, than that 
which you call a gentleman, and is nothing else." The terrible 
"Ironsides" was the corps thus raised. 

It is impossible for us to follow Cromwell in his military expeditions 
against the royalists and other enemies of his country. Wherever 
he appeared, victory crowned the day. His activity and decision 
were marvellous, and in every kind of military tactic, it is doubtful 
if England has ever had his superior. Charles was decapitated, and 
Cromwell appointed Protector. Under his administration, popular 
freedom received much invigorating support. Indeed, it must be a 
matter of surprise with all dispassionate thinkers, how he could have 
accomplished so much, surrounded as he was by jealousies, hatreds, 
and intimidations. He appointed for judges the most upright and 
distinguished men, — among others Sir Matthew Hale. He never in- 
terfered with the courts of justice. In religion, he was as tolerant 
as any man living in that age, and belonging to the Puritan party, 
could be. He promoted the arts and sciences, and helped, by deci- 
sive legislation, to lay the foundation of a great nation. Usurpers 
must be tyrants, but whilst they tyrannize, they try to conciliate. If 
Cromwell were " a scourge of God," Charles had prepared the nation 
for its infliction ; and if Charles was a mild tyrant, Cromwell was 
moderate as a despot.* Charles was beheaded to insure justice to 
the people, and Cromwell would have met with a similar fate, but 
for his superior justice, vigor, and forethought. The hyj^ocrisy of 
Cromwell has been a .standing theme with historians. But there is 
no reasonable ground for supposing that he acted otherwise than 
from conscientious conviction. The publication of his most private 
letters indicate clearly, that what he professed in public, he believed 
in private. A charge of hypocrisy is a common way of assailing 
the reputation of a Puritan, particularly by men who believe in the pos- 
sibility of wearing religion like a garment, for decency's sake. He 
must be strangely constituted who, while reading Cromwell's letters, 
and there viewing his private life, can discern nothing in him but 

* History of Democracy. 



126 A VOICE TO AMERICA. 

unmingled dissimulation.* The present age is doing him justice, spite 
of kings, queens, and houses of lords. His memory is cherished, and 
he may yet be invoked when the country which gave him birth, is 
convulsed in the throes of civil war and revolution. 

One of the sincerest republicans of Cromwell's epoch, was that 
illustrious man who afterwards wrote the sublime poem of " Paradise 
Lost." John Milton was Latin secretary to the new council of state, 
and in every official act proved that he was the consistent advocate 
of political liberty. To an extent lie was a hero in the cause. That 
sad calamity with which he was afflicted in the latter years of his life, 
is said to have been produced by the severe devotion with which he 
applied himself to the composition of a work entitled " Defensio pro 
Populo Anglicano." Salmasius had written a defence of monarchy, 
and particularly of Charles L, under the title of " Defensio Regis." 
Milton's work was a reply to this, and exhibited so much learning 
and fervid eloquence, that his opponent was completely overwhelmed. 
Close application, midnight toil, and intense study were necessary for 
the composition of this able defence of popular rights against monar- 
chical pretension. Milton was frequently told by his physicians that 
it would result in blindness, but he was far too earnest to heed their 
warning advice. Total loss of sio-ht was the result. He was not 
cast down even with this calamity. The moment he had recovered 
from the first shock of its intensity, he set about writing another de- 
fence of the people of England. 

On the death of Cromwell, Milton employed his pen with greal 
vigor to check the prevalent feeling in favor of the Restoration. Un- 
able to do so, he sought refuge in the house of a friend. In the act 
of indemnity which followed, his name found no exception. With 
many others he was given into the custody of the sergeant-at-arms. 
After a while he was released. In impoverished circumstances, he 
sought tlic tranquil pleasures of poetic studies. To his withdrawal 
from the political arena we are indebted tor thai lasting monument of 
sublime genius, the "Paradise Lost" 

* Triall. 



THE HEROES OF THE FOUNDERS OF LIBERTY. 127 

Before quitting this prolific period of effort and achievement, it may 
be profitable to refer to an invaluable document obtained after much 
trouble from the government of Charles II. We refer to the Habeas < 
Corpus Act : arbitrary imprisonment became impossible after its pas- 
sage. By this act it was prohibited to send any one to prison beyond 
sea. No judge, under severe penalties, was permitted to refuse a 
prisoner a writ of habeas corpus, on the issuing of which the jailor 
was required to produce in court the body of the prisoner (whence 
the name), and to certify the cause of his detention and imprison- 
ment. If the jail lie within twenty miles of the judge, the writ must 
be obeyed in three days, and so for greater distances. Every prisoner 
must be indicted the first term after his commitment, and brought to 
trial in the subsequent term. And no man, after being discharged, can 
be recommitted for the old offence.* The general freedom of the sub- 
ject is thus secured. No man could be incarcerated on mere suspicion 
or caprice. Cause had to be shown why he was detained, and he had 
an early opportunity of appealing to a jury for his discharge. The 
Magna Charta, the Petition of Right, and the Habeas Corpus Act, com- 
pleted the English Constitution, and gave an impetus to popular liberty, 
which has been gaining in momentum from that day to the present. 
The Constitution of the United States is based on the principles of these 
three great documents. The stiwo-les which wrenched them from the 
iron claw of prerogative, must always be interesting to the American, 
forming as they do the antecedent history of his own country. 

All that is necessary for the completion of this chapter is the addi- 
tion of one more great political triumph ; need we say — the American 
Revolution ? The student of history, if he seek to trace and connect 
the great chain of Anglo-Saxon triumphs, lights on this naturally as 
the last and greatest of them all. It is a necessary sequence ; a point 
at which the mind rests, and expatiates with confidence and delight. 
In the Declaration of Independence is epitomized all those incontro- 
vertible truths, which are at once the wealth and the glory of the 
Anglo-Saxon race. 

* Hume. 



128 A VOICE TO AMERICA. 

In dealing with the preceding topics, we have been compelled on 
several occasions to refer to the peculiar religious characteristics of 
the times, and in glancing hastily at our history, we are confronted 
with the same difficulty. The Puritans, as they were called, were men 
who stamped the age with a peculiar individuality. They were not 
only men who thought, but men who felt with the keenness of 
thouo-ht. The grievous oppressions of the Star Chamber were not se- 
cret wrongs with such men, but intolerable public calamities, which it 
were well to flee from. Their consciences, as well as their bodies, 
were endangered. The Puritans everywhere fled, preferring the dan- 
gers and vicissitudes of a home in the wilderness, to the emasculate 
freedom of their own native homes. 

Arrived in the new land, they were under no apprehensions con- 
cerning their individual liberty. With no kingly foe to oppress them, 
they were secure— at all events for the present. Their danger lay in 
the possibility of religious dissension. It was for their religion they 
were obnoxious at home ; they had been persecuted for it, and if they 
now strove with more firmness than liberality to preserve it, some ex- 
cuse can surely be made for them. The Puritans on board the May- • 
flower, before landing, united upon a compact in which they solemnly 
covenanted with each other to combine into a civil body politic, for 
their better ordering and protection, and to enact, constitute, and frame 
such just and equal laws, ordinances, acts, constitutions, and offices, 
from time to time a- Bhould be thought meet and convenient for the 
general good of the colony. These just and equal laws would scarce- 
ly be considered so in the present day, but they had the advai 
of simplicity. The social compact thus entered into has generally 
been looked upon as an extraordinary document It marked with 
boldness a circle of freedom, and recognized the great prinoipl 
justice and equality. 

The government of the colonists resembled a theocracy in its 
form. Every thing was subservient to the Church. Deficiencies in 
the legal code were avowedly to be remedied by "the Word of God," 
and public questions were more often determined from the pulpit than 



THE HEROES OF THE FOUNDERS OF LIBERTY. 129 

the bench. Nothing approaching liberty of conscience was permit- 
ted. It was denounced as compaction with the devil. In 1648, 
these acts of the Puritans appear to have been a little grievous. 
Some of the colonists petitioned the session for their rights " as Eng- 
lish subjects," and the petitioners expressed their opinion that the 
Puritan government was an ill-compacted vessel. In return for this 
piece of criticism, the petitioners were fined, and told, bluntly, to 
mind their own business for the future. Political authority was 
entirely absorbed by the Church, and was hurled from the pulpit 
with fierce ardor. Every man who had the temerity to claim equal 
political liberties, was persecuted in the courts, and denounced in the 
churches. Indeed, the church-members generally appear to have 
been pursued in a most remorseless manner. 

The early settlers in Virginia were, at first, merely speculators, — 
and singularly unfortunate they were in their speculation. When, 
however, the tide of emigration began to flow steadily towards their 
shores, they were recuperated with some of the best blood of the old 
country. It was a complaint in that colony that too many " gentle- 
men" were sent there. In the first vessels dispatched by the London 
company, there were but twelve laborers, four carpenters, and a few 
other mechanics. The remainder of the one hundred and five passen- 
gers were " gentlemen." The Virginians were Episcopalians, disposed 
to be moderate and accommodating. But they too, lilje their breth- 
ren of Plymouth, thought a great deal of their consciences. The 
first extant laws of Virginia relate more to the moral well-being of 
the inhabitants, than their worldly prosperity. Virginia, together 
with Maryland and the West India islands, adhered to the cause of 
the king. Irritated by this, the government fitted out expeditions 
against those places, and required from them an engagement to be 
true and loyal to the commonwealth of England, as now constituted, 
without king, and without House of Lords. In Massachusetts, after 
the Restoration, a different difficulty was experienced. It took the 
worthy Puritans of that State a period of twelve months to make up 
their minds whether or not they should proclaim King Charles II. 



130 A VOICE TO AMERICA. 

When they had concluded to do so, they published an ordination 
prohibiting all unseemly or disorderly demonstrations of ] 

In a theological point of view, we find .strange contrarieties in 
the history of America, not the least being the palpable intolerance 
which, for nearly a century, tyrannized over the hearts and minds of 
its inhabitants. But, on the other hand, this same history is the most 
consistent in the world, so far as unhesitating resistance to royal pre- 
rogative was concerned. The settlers looked on their various charters 
as the fundamental justification of all their acts. "They contented 
themselves with the powers conferred upon them by their respective 
charters, without looking beyond the seal of the royal parchment for 
the measure of their rights and the rule of their duties."* They 
would on no account consent to an appeal to England, not even 
during the Commonwealth. All they would consent to, was to send 
out commissioners to explain why they had not paid their debts. 
They preferred settling every other difficulty amongst themselves, " on 
consideration that if we should put ourselves under the protection 
of parliament, we must then be subject to all such laws as they 
should make ; in which course, though they should intend our good, 
yet it might prove very prejudicial to us."f 

Xo kind of political concession was ever made by the Puritans, 
either to the king's commission, when headed by Laud, or, subse- 
quently, to the commissioners sent out by the Long Parliament. In 
1672, when a custom-house was attempted to be established, the 
Bostonians quietly evaded its exactions, and refused, in the most con- 
temptuous manner, to pay any kind of attention to Randolph, or his 
customs either. The ridiculous dilemma in which the latter found 
himself, compelled him to return to England. He returned later, 
armed with greater powers, and encountered the same resistance — as, 
in turn, did the colonial governors appointed by the home govern- 
ment. The Puritans were, from first to last, thoroughly intractable. 
They denied the justice of English prerogative, and fought for every 
inch of privilege in the sternest manner. They would not admit that 

* John Quincy. t Winthrop. 



THE HEKOES OF THE FOUNDERS OF LIBERTY. 131 

England had any thing at all to do with them, and distinctly asserted 
that there was not the shadow of pretext for her interference m 
American affairs. The same spirit, in the American Revolution, 
inspired the courageous hearts of the citizens of all the colonies ; 
and the result was — the triumph of freedom in the New World. 
The sacrifices suffered, and the blood spilt by the Heroes of the 
Founders of Liberty had, at the appointed time, produced their 
fruits. 



THE BOUNDARIES OF COUNTRIES-HOW ESTABLISHED. 

" Westward the Star of Empire takes it way, 
The four first acts already past, — 
A fifth shall close the drama with the day ; 
Time's noblest offspring is the last." 

Bishop Berkeley. 

Nature fixes her limits to all things. Her laws are too deeply 
engraven on the w r orld, to be transcended by any power less than her 
own. Man may be impelled by ambition to compass certain ends, 
but these impulsive sallies are harmoniously governed by the require- 
ments of Nature ; and what at the first promised only antagonism 
and consequent confusion, is found in the end to be tranquilly obedi- 
ent to the most comprehensive and beautiful laws. 

To one who will sit down reflectingly, with the world's map before 
him, it will be apparent that Nature has from the beginning fixed 
boundaries to every country ; and furthermore, that these boundaries 
are unalterable. It is useless attempting to set aside her suggestions ; 
they are immutable. Whatever hint she has thrown out, carries with 
it all the authority of a law. Her finger points to no great fact in 
the formation of the world, that is not of itself, sufficient to give 
shape to all human histories, and color to the events of a long pro- 
cession of centuries. 

The countries of Asia lie separated, either by long chains of towering 
mountains, stretching away from point to point, until one is completely 
walled in, and the rest walled out ; or by vast deserts, uninhabitable 
by man, trackless, bare of vegetation, destitute of animal life, and 
altogether desolate. Across these wastes, invading forces in any great 
number would hardly come. Surrounded by them, a nation may 

7 



134 A VOICE TO AMERICA. 

repose in all the security of massive walls and armed forts. They 
are as fixed boundaries for a country, as if the population had caused 
them to be placed there. Large inland seas offer a like security, as, 
for instance, the Persian Gulf, lying between Arabia and Persia ; the 
Red Sea, between Arabia and Africa; the Caspian, between Circassia 
and Tartan- ; or the Japan Sea, dividing the peoples of two mon- 
strously overgrown empires. 

Asia, however, is thoroughly cut up into principalities and domin- 
ions by her lines of mountains — the Great and Little Altai, separating 
the colossal power of Russia from the vast Chinese Empire ; the 
Himalaya, keeping the Chinese Empire in turn distinct from India ; 
the Beloor mountains, lifting their shoulders between the same em- 
pire and Tartary the Independent ; and the Hindoo Koosh, drawing 
the line between Tartar}" and Afghanistan. The whole face of that 
quarter of the world has been thus accurately parcelled out to those 
who dwell upon it. 

In Africa the truth is no less plain. The Barbary States can 
extend no further south than to the great Desert of Sahara ; Soudan, 
beginning with the southernmost limit of the desert, stops at the bar- 
rier interposed by the Mountains of the Moon ; the countries along- 
th=' western coast reach into the dim confines of Ethiopia, where all is 
unknown in that land of the Sim. 

Europe, peopled by a great variety of races, obeys minutely these 
physical laws. Her nations are so many, that smaller boundaries are 
necessary, and become objects of grave political consideration. As 
civilization advances from the East, it seems to grow correspondingly 
jealous of its rights and privileges ; rivers, lakes, channels, and moun- 
tains are impressed into her service. Behold the Alps, lofty 
grand, walling in the independent little region called Switzerland, a 
name that invariably summons the word Liberty to the tongue. 
There are the Pyrenees, eternal bounds tor both France and Spain; 
the Scandinavian chain, parting Norway and Sweden as naturally 
as if that were the single purpose of their election. There stretch 
along the Carpathians, hemming in Austria from Prussia and Russia. 



BOUNDARIES OF COUNTRIES. 135 

We need but to glance at the course of the immortal Rhine, to 
believe, with the great Napoleon, that nature intended it for -the 
eastern limit to France. The Danube, with its numerous mouths, 
forms a natural boundary to Turkey and her Principalities against 
Russia and Austria. The Rhine again performs its part in dividing 
one petty German kingdom from another ; and the Tornea completes 
the work for Sweden, against Russia, which the Gulf of Bothnia seems 
to have left unfinished. A narrow channel alone separates England 
from France — two nations whose boast it is that they combinedly 
stand in the front of the world. Denmark is hemmed in by a couple 
of channels, from both Norway and Sweden. Sweden, in turn, rests 
secure against Russia, with the Baltic and the Gulf of Bothnia inter- 
posed between them. 

In all these national divisions, the hand of Nature is but too 
apparent. Her suggestions must everywhere be obeyed. Whoever 
deliberately opposes them, thinking by the force of his own will to 
change these natural limits, is surely throwing himself upon a stone 
that will in the end grind him to powder. 

Poor Poland ! she has no boundaries at all ! An open plain, she 
became the prey of nations stronger than herself. She has no moun- 
tains to keep imperial Russia back ; none to hold in check the rulers 
of Prussia ; none to shut out the cruel forces of the more cruel House 
of Hapsburg. She encamped on a broad plain ; and there was she 
stealthily surrounded and set upon by three robbers with crowns upon 
their brows, and her nationality, bleediug and dying, torn limb from 
limb. Yet let us hope that Poland has a future, and that the morn- 
ing of her resurrection is approaching. 

" Plains are the proper territories of tyranny. There the arms of 
a usurper may extend themselves with ease, leaving no corner unoc- 
cupied in which patriotism might shelter or treason hide. But moun- 
tains, glens, morasses, and lakes set bounds to conquest ; and amidst 
these is the impregnable seat of Liberty." This is lamentably true 
in the case of Poland. On the other hand, the freedom that has lived 
through the storms of so many years, amidst the mountain-heights of 



136 A VOICE TO AMERICA. 

Switzerland, proves the justice of the observation. And where have 
men, single-handed, as it were, offered such bold, resolute, and defi- 
ant opposition to all the usurpations of tyranny, as in the moun- 
tains of Scotland ? The tales of her heroes make one's blood tingle 
with admiration. The names of Wallace and Bruce, engraven on the 
heart of every real lover of freedom, will live till the " last syllable 
of recorded time." Their examples will never die, but the spirit of 
Freedom which breathes through them, will move forward in silence, 
but with power, till the whole globe is finally encircled in its blessed 
embrace. 

On this Western continent, nations have as yet hardly settled them- 
selves in their natural positions. As it is a comparatively new field 
of operation, so must many things that are esteemed fixed in the 
Old World, continue for a long time in a state of transition. Princi- 
ples may be established, yet, from their very nature, they may keep 
all persons in a state of perpetual activity. Such are the principles 
of popular liberty — offering freedom to every man, oj)ening grand 
fields for the exercise of his various powers, and inciting him to con- 
tinued exertion. 

The original thirteen States lay stretched ajoug the Atlantic coast. " 
In their front was a vast ocean; in their rear an almost impenetrable 
wilderness. Little did the early settlers think that small beginning 
was to result, least of all to result so speedily, in the subjugation of a 
broad continent to the purposes of a high civilization. Their first 
thought was for their own protection. They sought to command an 
independent subsistence. In industry, in heroic resolve and action, in 
energy and persistent endurance, no people ever lived who were their 
superiors. In taking wise thought for themselves, they seem never to 
have forgotten the greal and distinctive principles on which their polit- 
ical system was founded. Tt was self-preservation ; but that involved 
something far more lofty than mere selfishness. Periling their lives 
and fortunes in defence of their convictions, they did not forget, in 
the flush of success, the cause on which their very lives depended. 
To men actuated by such principles, ordinary natural boundaries 



BOUND AEIES OF COUNTRIES. 1ST 

could offer but trifling impediments in the work upon which they 
were engaged. The spirit of their principles was expansive, perpetu- 
ally enlarging its limits. Our fathers settled the whole of the im- 
mense tract extending from Maine to Georgia. Every imaginable tie 
held together the people at the extremes of the Union, equally with 
those who were neighbors. The purpose that pervaded all hearts 
alike, and cemented the union which a common interest had been 
instrumental in forming, was one that readily leaped the widest 
streams, and found its way over the highest mountains. It was no 
more to be controlled by the limits of natural bounds, than the silent 
and mysterious passage of light could be checked by the impotent 
ordering of man. 

If now we direct our attention to the map of the United States, we 
shall see that Nature had apparently set no limits to the growth of 
this nation, save perhaps the Mississippi River, the Rocky Mountains, 
or the Pacific Ocean. Our march was still westward, in obedience to 
the inexorable law. Forests fell, as if by magic, before the ringing 
axe of our sturdy pioneers. Broad fields lay extended in the sunlight, 
where, but a short time before, wild beasts found their coverts and 
hunted their prey. Acre after acre waved with the bending wheat 
and rye, and gleamed with the yellow gold of ripening corn. Cabins 
dotted the hillsides, and mill-wheels flashed in the running streams. 
Hamlets grew and thickened. Villages everywhere gave a new life 
and light to the landscape. Towns and cities sent up their busy 
hum, and the air was alive with the sounds and voices of intelligent 
and independent industry. 

In an incredibly short time, State after State was added to the 
confederacy, wheeling into the ranks with all the order and precision 
of a military manoeuvre. Each remained an independent power, yet 
materially contributed to the strength of the confederacy. The trou- 
bles that were so readily imagined for us, as a consequence of such 
rapid and unexampled growth, all dissipated like dew before the 
morning sun. Those who watched our course with critical eyes, 
could not understand that the very spirit of our institutions begat 



138 VOICE TO AMERICA. 

harmony, and not discord ; that it had no relation to conquest, 
nor even to a selfish ambition, but that it exerted itself rather upon 
the convictions and feelings of men, than upon either their will or 
their power of resistance. It appealed only to men's volition, never 
to their obstinacy. It sought only to win over, never to compel. 
The first fruit of such a spirit could not fail to be peace. 

We kept growing at the same unparalleled rate continually. We 
reached the Mississippi and the Mexican Gulf. Here, said some of 
our wisest statesmen, we will rest. "Thus far, and no farther." But 
the great coil of events in our national history was only beginning to 
run out. It would be a long time before we should come to the end. 
The spirit of enterprise, the highest characteristic of the American 
people, was nowise content to rest here. The great Mississippi poured 
itself into the Gulf; but why could it not wash States on both shores 
as well as on one ? Was that turbid current a sufficient limit for the 
energies of free culture and free institutions ? The indomitable men 
of the nation said No, and forward went the work of settling and 
civilizing an entire continent. 

Texas was with us, and became a part of us. We founded a great 
and powerful State on the Pacific shore, as if to be a new inducement 
to draw us over the mountains and deserts that lay between. Oregon 
claimed a place by our side, her people and ours being one in sym- 
pathy, as tli*'\ were in blood and education. And the gr< .tern 
and Northwestern Territories were finally partitioned out, receiving 
their names and forms of government. The inquiry was next made, — 
Are not the Rocky Mountain* a natural division for the country.'' 
But the question seems suddenly to have answered itself. Already 
we have crossed the Rocky Mountains. We have conquered them. 
They are no longer impassable. We have friends, neighbors, sons, 
brothers, who inhabit that far-off land. The very of boundary, 
which they once so naturally excited in our minds, have fallen away 
upon a nearer acquaintance with them, and now hardly exist at all. 

This age of steam and lightning, of discovery and perpetual appli- 
cation, is performing incredible things in bringing distant places and 



BOUNDARIES OF COUNTRIES. 139 

people together. It seems almost to keep abreast with sympathy 
itself in the race. The spirit that vitalizes it, tunnels mountains, 
bridges our widest rivers, leaps deserts at a single bound, and stops 
only with the vast ocean itself. Oar brethren in California and 
Oregon are not more distant from us to-day, than were the early 
settlers of Ohio but thirty years ago. Nothing could have worked 
such a revolution but a radical change, or progressiveness, in ideas. 
Distance itself has not diminished, but its effects have been reduced 
in estimation. We are put in closer communication this day with 
our brethren on the far-off Pacific shore, than we formerly were with 
the pioneers on our Western frontiers. Nothing has wrought this 
great change but our own efforts. Our energy and enterprise have 
accomplished all. And what yet remains undone, the coming years 
will certainly behold completely realized. 

Perhaps with different institutions, some such natural barrier as the 
Eocky Mountains present, would fix a final limit- to their progress. 
Under forms of government that hold men as mere subjects, such an 
obstacle might prevail ; but under ours, wherein each man is consi- 
dered a citizen, such a chain of mountains but creates an additional 
spur to enterprise. Educated to the most liberal and comprehensive 
habits of thought, our minds seem only to expand with the contem- 
plation of these things, and our ideas sjmrpathize with the geographi- 
cal magnitude of our rivers, plains, and mountains. Freedom may 
perch upon the summits of that rocky chain, and descend thence 
into the broad valleys on either side ; but monarchy would be unable 
to breathe so pure and bracing an atmosphere. They may stand as 
landmarks, — scarred, whitened, and time-honored ; but never need 
they stand as limits either to civilization or the living spirit that 
holds us together as a mighty people. On to the ocean ! There 
can be no natural boundary but its shore. There this great Piepublic 
rests ; there its ships anchor. We are ready to accept no confines, 
save those vast oceans that wash with their never-sleeping waves our 
eastern and western coasts ! 

In time, greater things are destined to be accomplished. New 



140 A VOICE TO AMERICA. 

Mexico is ours ; shall not the whole empire of Cortez be ours, not by 
force, or conquest, or fraud, but in obedience to the same laws that 
have extended our institutions across this continent ? Will not that 
enfeebled and enervate nation in time awake to the real blessings of 
self-government, of industry, of enterprise, and of free institutions? 
And Central America, — is there any hindrance to her many^etty 
powers throwing aside their differences, and coming peacefully and 
hopefully under the influence of this large family of States ? Cuba 
was plainly intended by nature as the key to the great valley of the 
Mississippi, and will yet be knocking at our doors, for the day cannot 
be far distant when she will be free. 

On the north, we see no reason why the great lakes interpose any 
boundary between ourselves and Canada. We see not why all will 
not yet become United x\merica. We are not able to understand 
why an imaginary parallel of latitude should keep the spirit of free 
thought back, dooming it to a tract that has been bounded and sur- 
veyed by the dictum of a purely arbitrary power. The new recipro- 
city treaty is a long step in the direction desired. The Provinces on 
the east are separated only by lines that may be easily wiped out, 
but not at all by any such great and deep differences in sympathy as 
divide nations. Their natural interests are in common with our own. 
Their modes of thinking continually assimilate to ours. Their pur- 
suits require the same perseverance and courage in order to attain 
like results. And it can hardly be questioned that the logical course 
of events will in due time bring them also, peacefully and voluntarily, 
into this extended federal compact. Our boundaries are wide apart, 
and contain territory enough to sustain a countless population. Under 
free institutions like ours, all may rise to the level of their true destiny; 
individual selfishness and usurpation and nothing but wishes 

for the common good be in the ascendant. Who can clearly predict 
the condition of our country in the far-off future ? We are alive with 
hope, — a hope that blazes with a brighter and still brighter illumi- 
nation, lighting us along on the broad pathway of realization. 



ROMANISM AND FREEDOM. 

" By the patriot's hallowed rest, 
By the -warrior's gory breast, 
Never let our graves be prest 
By a despot's throne." 

Fierrepoxt. 

The advocates of Romanism claim that she is the patron of learning 
and of freedom ! — the encourager of free thought, free opinion, and 
free expression ; and there are some favorite examples quoted to 
maintain this monstrous proposition. The Magna Charta, the very 
groundwork of freedom, is held up as the fruit of Catholic liberality, 
and so continually announced in our Legislative Halls, from the 
stump, and in flaming editorials. Unfolding the page of history, we 
find that John, king of England, engaged in a controversy with the 
Pope, which resulted in the king's yielding up his possessions to the 
Holy See, and receiving them back as a vassal. The proud Barons, 
who at the time possessed no defined rights, could not Drook the in- 
sults and degradation w T hich were heaped upon them through the 
weakness of their king, and solemnly demanded, for their protection, 
what is now known as the Magna Charta. In the straggle between 
the lords and the crow T n, the Pope took part with John against the 
Barons, and brought the whole of his temporal and spiritual power 
to defeat their demands. Against them Pope Innocent, from the Coun- 
cil of Lateran, thundered his bulls of excommunication : — " We will 
have you to know, that in General Council we have excommunicated 
and anathematized, in the name of the Father, and the Son, and the 
Holy Ghost, in the name of the Apostles Peter and Paul, and in our 
own name, the Barons of England, with their partisans and abettors, 



142 A VOICE TO AMERICA. 

for persecuting John, the illustrious King of England, who has taken 
the cross, and is a vassal of the Roman Church, for striving to deprive 
him of a kingdom, which is known to belong to the Roman Church." 

The example of France, which has in modern times shaken off a 
tyrannical monarchy, and made approaches towards republican insti- 
tutions, has been held up as a testimony that Romanism iavors 
liberty. The French people always resisted, more perseveringly than 
those of any other Catholic country, the assumptions of Popery ; to 
France, the world is indebted, not only for Catholics imbued with a 
true spirit of Christianity, but also for some of the most powerful 
writers against the assumptions of the Holy See. The Kings of 
France ever contended for the right of appointing their own Bishops, 
and it was only under monarchs most deeply imbued with Romanism 
that France found her greatest tyrants. Of late years, as the light 
of true liberty has made encroachments upon the domain of despot- 
ism, it has modified the illiberality of darker times, and one of the 
first fruits of the late popular revolutions in that country was the 
separation of Church and State, and protection to every religious 
belief. But France, liberal as her people naturally are, is yet too 
much under the influence of Roman supremacy to be quoted as an 
example of religious toleration. 

It seems but yesterday that Rome herself woke from her long 
night of slavery, and declaring herself free, her spiritual and temporal 
despot, the Pope, fled from her walls, and took refuge in Gaeta. The 
regenerated Romans offered to receive the Pope as their spiritual 
head, but resolutely insisted on the abolition of his temporal power, 
and that of his tyrannical cardinals. The overture was scorned, and 
the work of their subjugation to despotism was assigned to France, 
and, in spite of her Republicanism, the lingering slavery of priestcraft 
was so wrought into the H<>«>d and bones of her rulers and her sol- 
diery, that she accepted the work, marched her armies on Rome, 
bombarded and carried the city by assault, and crushed the new 
Republic and the liberals of Italy in the dust. 

Maryland, settled under the auspices of Cecil Calvert, a Catholic, 



ROMANISM AND FREEDOM. 143 

and by its charter granting* popular liberty and religious freedom, has 
been held up as an example of Catholic toleration. The wily Bishop, 
the innocent layman, and the designing politician, can never suffi- 
ciently eulogize the liberality that characterized that Colonial govern- 
ment, where, in times of universal intolerance, men could live unmo- 
lested in the enjoyment of the rights of conscience. If this were the 
result of the direct interference of the Roman Church, had it been 
voluntarily suggested by Lord Baltimore, then it certainly would 
have been an illustrious example, and would have stood out a monu- 
ment of light from among the accumulated darkness. But history 
shows, that neither the Church nor its adherents in any way favored 
the cause of liberty, so far as tlje early settlement of Maryland was 
concerned. 

If Lord Baltimore had been a Protestant nobleman, a Protestant 
prince would have granted him a charter for a Protestant province. 
If the king had been a Catholic, a Catholic proprietary would have 
procured a charter for a Catholic province. This course of action 
characterizes the history of the period. The luminous and beautiful 
exception of Maryland to the spirit of colonization of the seventeenth 
century was owing to the happy coincidence of a wise and energetic 
statesman receiving a charter from a Protestant monarch jealous of 
his faith, and both statesman and monarch compelled to pay defer- 
ence to the progressive doctrines and political strength of the Inde- 
pendents of England, who were then preparing the way for successful 
revolution, and the final triumph of universal liberty, in these Ameri- 
can States.* 

The claim that Romanism is in favor of free thought, free expres- 
sion, and free opinion, is never urged by her votaries out of the United 
States ; the policy of doing it in this country, however, sometimes 
becomes insupportable, and the leading Catholic presses occasionally 
break forth in the following natural language : 

" No good government can exist without religion — and there can 

* See History of Democracy in the United States, Maryland, p. 199. 



144 A VOICE TO AMERICA. 

be no religion without an Inquisition, which is wisely designed for 
the promotion and protection of the true faith."* 

" For our own part, we take this opportunity to explain our hearty 
delight at the suppression of the Protestant chapel in Home. This 
may be thought intolerant ; but when, we ask, Did we ever profess to 
be tolerant of Protestantism, or to favor the question that Protestant- 
ism ought to be tolerated ? On the contrary, we hate Protestantism — 
we detest it with our whole heart and soul, and we pray our aversion 
to it may never decrease.*' \ 

In the United States toleration is claimed as a Papal virtue, be- 
cause it is known to be harmonious with public sentiment. Upon 
the Continent of Europe all is different, and Romanism becomes the 
strono- right arm of despotism, and the enemy of every thing that is 
free. Not the supporter of tyranny by inference of its enthusiastic 
devotees, but by the powerful precepts of its written laws, sanctioned 
by all the solemnities of tradition, and all the massive machinery of 
the Church. Of the doctrines of the Council of Trent it is decreed, 
" If any one shall presume to teach, or to think differently from these 
decrees, let him be accursed." As late as 1832, the Church, through 
Gregory XVII., in its famous Encyclical letter, pronounces, " From 
that polluted fountain of indifference flows the absurd and erroneous 
doctrine, or rather raving, in favor and in defence of liberty of con- 
science, for which most pestilential error, the course opened by that 
entire and wild liberty of opinion, which is everywhere attempting 
the overthrow of civil and religious institutions, and which the un- 
blushing impudence of some has held forth as an advantage to re- 
ligion." " From hence arise those revolutions in the minds of men, 
hence this aggravated corruption of youths, hence the contempt 
among the people of sacred things, and of the most holy institutions 
and laws; hence, in one word, that pest of all others most to be 
dreaded in a State, unbridled liberty of opinion." 

The establishment of the Inquisition in the sixteenth century was 

* Boston Pilot. t 1 Catholic Visitor, 1848. 



ROMANISM AND FREEDOM. 145 

for the avowed purpose of putting down free thought, free expression, 
and free opinion. Under its sway, enormities were committed which 
make humanity shudder. Under its administration John Louis Vivis, 
a Spaniard of great learning and reputation, bewails the fate of mode- 
rate and charitable Catholics even in Spain ; what must have been 
the fate of avowed Protestants who came under its condemnation ? 
Says Vivis, in a letter to Erasmus, dated May 18th, 1534, " We live 
in hard times, in which we can neither speak or be silent without 
danger." In the forty-three years of the administrations of the first 
four Inquisitors-General, which closed in the year 1524, they com- 
mitted eighteen thousand human beings to the flames, and inflicted 
inferior punishments on two hundred thousand persons more, with 
various degrees of severity. It was this work of the Inquisition in 
Spain, with a knowledge that the Spanish and French monarchs 
meditated the extension over all Christendom of the Inquisition, that 
seated Elizabeth firmly on the throne of England, and secured that 
political toleration that led to the brightest triumphs of the Ref- 
ormation. 

Popish devotees are made to believe, and Protestants are constantly 
told, that the Inquisition was not established by the Catholic Church, 
and therefore the Church is not to be held accountable for any of its 
acts; yet we find Saint Liguori, one of the most reverend of the 
Fathers, says, — 

" Pope Paul III. established the General Inquisition at Ptome, in 
the year 1542, by his Bull 34, commencing with the words ' Licet ah 
initio.'" — (Ligor. de Prohib. Libro, p. 238.) "In the General Con- 
gregation," continues the Saint, " of the holy Roman and Universal 
Inquisition, held in the Apostolical Quirinal Palace, before our most 
holy Lord, Lord Benedict, by Divine Providence the fourteenth 
Pope, and before the most eminent and most serene doctors, the Car- 
dinals of the Holy Roman Church, specially deputed by the holy 
Apostolical See, General Inquisitors against heretical pravity." — 
(Ligor. de Rom. Pont, Dec. iii, p. 85.) 

The fact that the Romish Church assumes to be infallible, of neces- 



146 A VOICE TO AMERICA. 

sity makes her iutolerant. Her arrogant claim of supremacy above 
all governments of the earth in things spiritual, must also of necessity- 
make her an enemy to free thought and action. The truth of this 
position is clearly set forth in the Rhemish Testament, which urges 
that " the blood of heretics is not called the blood of saints, no more 
than the blood of thieves, man-killers, and other malefactors, for the 
shedding of which, by order of justice, no commonwealth shall suffer." 
— (Mkem. Test., Annot. upon Rev. xvii. 6.) 

" Experience teaches," says Cardinal Bellarmine, " that there is no 
other remedy for the evil but to put heretics to death ; for the Church 
proceeded gradually, and tried every remedy. At first, she merely 
excommunicated them ; afterward she added a fine ; then she ban- 
ished them ; and finally she was constrained to put them to death." — 
(Bellarm. de Laicis, lib. iii. c. 21.) 

Finally, as an utter refutation of the claim Romanism makes to 
free thought, free expression, and free opinion, we quote the language 
of the General Council of Lateran, which says, " Let the secular 
powers be compelled, if necessary, to exterminate to their utmost 
power all heretics denoted by the Church." — (Gen. Coun. Lat., A. P. 
1215.) 

Such are the assumptions of this mighty religio-politica] organi- 
zation, which, under the mild regis of our Republican institutions, 
sends forth both its deceived and its knowing disciples, to teach the 
people of America, that it cherishes the fundamental principles of 
Republicanism, denying for the time its most ancient doctrines, deny- 
ing its practice through centuries, and seemingly holding in contempt 
the intelligence of the American people, by claiming attributes so 
utterly opposed to its practices and precepts. That the Jesuitical 
foreign priest who was born under the system, nursed in its iniquities, 
who has no home, no ambition, no future, no glory that does nol centre 
in Rome, should be willing to load his conscience down with menial 
reservations, or being so utterly corrupt, from his early education, to 
know nothing as right but the building up of his Church; — that 
such :i man should claim any thing and every thing for Papacy, that 



ROMANISM AND FREEDOM. 147 

would palliate the opposition of the American mind to its despotic 
and liberty-crushing requirements, is not strange ; but the terrible 
influence of Papal power is more awfully illustrated than in any 
other case, when it can make a free and independent native-born 
citizen, educated and enlightened, and accustomed in his early life to 
think and act for himself, suddenly cease to have a mind of his own, 
suddenly deny the truths of history, suddenly discard the lessons of 
his own experience, and the accumulated testimony of ages, and de- 
clare that in the Romish Church there is free thought and free ex- 
pression, and support it by sophisms upon history, that upon exami- 
nation by the light of truth are dissipated, and leave the advocate in 
the condition of a person who willingly lends himself to deceptions 
of the grossest kind, or who, if sincere, must be passed upon as in- 
capable, from ghostly influence, of announcing the truth. 

No historical fact can be produced which will show that the Pope 
of Rome has aided in any cause that might properly be termed one 
of freedom, or that any of his official councils, or any acknowledged 
councils of the Church, have ever done any thing to enlighten the 
people, and encourage them in the principles of self-government. 
The present Pontiff may be presumed to have as enlarged views as 
any of his predecessors, yet he is as far removed from encouraging 
republican ideas as the most bigoted prelate of the dark ages. He 
represents, in this matter, not himself, but his Church ; and acts only 
in accordance with the spirit and dictates of the great religio-political 
institution of which he is the head. Pius IX. blessed the Czar of 
Russia, and the newly made Emperor of Austria, because they aided 
in restoring him to his throne, from which he had been driven by the 
republicans of Italy. At the same time he cursed Piedmont and Bel- 
gium, because they asserted that the civil power was superior in civil 
matters to the power of the priests, and attempted to escape from 
some of the galling usurpations of Rome. Pius entered the hospitals, 
filled with wounded republicans who had fallen in the attempt to give 
liberty to the people, and poured out upon them his especial maledic- 
tions. To the wounded French — those hireling troops who had been 



148 A VOICE TO AMERICA. 

employed to stifle liberty — be dispensed his blessing, and loaded tliem 
with rosaries, medals, and crosses of honor. Such was his treatment 
to the men who had cruelly shot down his own subjects — his own 
people ! The bones of the martyrs of liberty were left to decay 
upon the surface of the ground ; and, in this nineteenth century, 
travellers were disgusted in witnessing this savage cruelty, allowed 
almost under the very walls of the Vatican. We repeat, that Pius IX., 
in these enormities, represents the principle of his Church; and were 
he to act more liberal — more in accordance with the spirit of the 
age — he would cease to be Pope; for Romanism and freedom will 
ever be at war. 



EFFECTS OF ROMAOTSM AND PROTESTANTISM 
ON CIVILIZATION. 

" The prosperity of a country is founded upon the intelligence of its inhabitants. This intelligence 
is dependent upon an enlightened religious belief; for the highest civilization is the result of the 
purest Christianity.'' 

Three centuries ago, the people of the continent of Europe became 
divided by the Reformation ; those of the North embraced Protestant- 
ism, those of the South remained Romanist. The great powers sided 
with Rome ; the second-rate embraced the new faith. The former 
held command over the most fruitful domains of the Old and New 
World, and swayed the sceptre of ocean. Literature, science, and 
the arts were theirs. The latter, in comparison, had received but little 
from Nature, and commerce and manufactures were scarcely known 
amongst them. Such was the position of affairs in the sixteenth cen- 
tury. Let us now examine the transformation which these respective 
countries have undergone. 

At the period of the Reformation, Spain was the first among the 
nations of Europe. By comparing its former with its present state, 
we shall discover how much it has lost ; and this loss is owing, if 
not entirely, at least in part, to its religious faith. Never was a nation 
so completely under the influence of Romanism as Spain. She pre- 
sented a brilliant picture in the sixteenth century ; for the conquest 
of Grenada had raised her to the pinnacle of wealth and prosperity. 
While the nobility gave themselves up to the profession of arms, the 
other classes enriched their country by assiduous labor. On all sides, 
irrigation, canals, and reservoirs distributed water over the remotest 
and most barren tracts. Agriculture was especially honored, whilst 



150 A VOICE TO AMERICA. 

industry and commerce added to the general prosperity. The devel- 
opment of trade was equal to that of industry. A minister of Philip 
the Second, asserted, in an assembly of the Cortes, that at the fair of 
Medina del Campo, in 1503, business was transacted to the amount 
of one hundred and thirty-two millions five hundred thousand dollars. 
A multitude of trading vessels set sail every year from various ports, 
conveying to Italy, Asia Minor, Africa, and the East Indies, the pro- 
ducts of the national industry. Sculpture, architecture, painting, and 
music were enshrined in her midst. The drama, epic and lyric po 
and history found worthy interpreters, names which will live forever. 
The palaces of the Spanish ambassadors were in foreign countries the 
resort of the most elegant society ; and France, Italy, England, and 
Germany sent their youth to Madrid to acquire Castilian manners 
and politeness. 

Towards the close of the fifteenth century, Spain, victorious over 
the Moors, became the discoverer and mistress of the New AVorld. 
What a magnificent present! What a glorious future ! All peoples 
looked to her as first amongst the nations, and sovereigns trembled at 
her power. 

What was the condition of England at the period of the Reforma- 
tion ? One-half of the land was the property of the clergy; the 
remainder belonged to the nobility. Sixty-live thousand priests and 
monks supported immense establishments by the moneys levied on 
the people. The land was cultivated to a comparatively small exteut, 
the gross agricultural product .being under forty millions of dollars. 
Her trade was small, compared to that of many nations on the conti- 
nent, and commerce was scarcely known in her ports. Manufactures 
were obtained from other countries, and education of the people had 
not yet commenced. Everywhere feudalism and priestcraft were tri- 
umphant, and divided the nation for their mutual benefit. 

England, under the benign influences of the Reformation, from 
a fourth-rate power, soon took h >n at the head of the nations 

of the earth; and peoples once her superiors became dependent upon 
her for protection and aid. Her ships whitened every sea, and her 



ROMANISM AND PROTESTANTISM. 151 

drum-beat greeted the rising sun around the world. Her capitalists 
have covered Europe with railroads, and she has made laws to mil- 
lions in Asia. She has her colonies in Africa, America, and a 
rising empire in Australia. "What the United States are effecting 
in the Western Hemisphere, she is accomplishing in the Old World. 

Within eleven years, Spain effects the subjugation of Grenada, 
discovers and conquers America, and establishes the Inquisition ! 
At the summit of prosperity in the fifteenth century, behold her in 
the nineteenth ! See that spectacle of agony which cannot come to 
an end ; that all-pervading confusion to which no term can be 
assigned ; the certain and progressive ruin of a nation that, for a 
whole century, dictated laws to Europe ; that inhabits the richest and 
most fertile soil, perhaps, under heaven — but a nation so disheartened 
that it feels itself perish, and watches its own decline with the resig- 
nation of a fatalist ! 

The clergy possess nearly one-third of the entire surface of Spain. 
As a consequence, one-twelfth of the inhabitants earn a livelihood by 
smuggling, robbing, and begging; and it has been estimated that 
three million Spaniards wear no shirt from want of money to pur- 
chase one. There are forty classes of vagrants, each elass with a 
specific, recognized name. There is an assassination for every four 
thousand of the population. Education is scarcely known, and there 
is but one pupil to every three hundred and fifty inhabitants. Internal 
navigation, agriculture, and manufactures are at a stand-still. Such 
is modern Spain, once the first, now»the last of nations ! What is 
the cause of this ? what the origin of such utter misery and help- 
lessness ? Tyranny, answers the politician ; Romanism-, says the Pro- 
testant ; the Inquisition, replies the historian. But these three are 
one. Tyranny and the Inquisition ! — foul offspring of blighting 
Romanism ! 

During the past year, the Queen of Spain having presented to the 
Pope a magnificent tiara of diamonds, the Pontiff returns an allocu- 
tion to the "Catholic Sovereign," and the gift of the body of St. Fe- 
lix ! Thus has it ever been. Spain parts with her wealth to Rome, 



152 A VOICE TO AMERICA. 

and receives in return bones, putrefaction, and rottenness ! But 
Rome has borne sway there too long. The Spaniards are now rising 
against this frightful spiritual and civil tyranny ; the dupes and tools 
of the priesthood have fled the country like malefactors, and the sov- 
ereign herself obeys the dictates of her subjects. Rome is no longer 
to hold Spain as her property, to farm and pillage it to benefit the 
Papal treasury. She has fattened on it too long, and has left it, poor, 
weak, uneducated, superstitious, low in civilization, the prey of count- 
less factions. But Spain is ridding herself of the cause of her misery — 
may we not hope, forever ? 

We address to the reader's conscience this twofold question : First, 
is it not true that Spain, favored with the finest climate, placed at the 
head of Europe, enriched with a world, but remaining Romanist, has 
continued to decline and grow poorer, sinking at last into ignorance, 
misery, and immorality ? Secondly, is it not true that England, 
with a sterile soil, a cloudy sky, and starting from the lowest rank 
among European nations, but having embraced Protestantism, is 
now T prosperous, enlightened, moral, and at the head of the civilized 
world ? 

We find the relative influence of the two creeds fully developed in 
the Republic of Switzerland. The Protestant cantons are more pop- 
ulous than the Romanist, and carry on a far greater trade. The 
latter are obliged to keep many holidays besides Sundays, and thus 
agriculture is much neglected. The Cantons of Zurich, Basle, Ge- 
neva, Glaris, and Neufohatel, all Protestant, are distinguished above 
the rest for their industry and manufactures. The people are not so 
well educated in the Romish as in the other cantons. There are but 
twenty-two presses in the former to eighty in the latter. Teu Protest- 
ant journals are printed to three Romanist. In the Papist cantons, 
ignorance and misery go hand in hand, and distress the eyes of the 
traveller. The taste for processions, pilgrimages, and oilier nets of 
devotion introduced by the monks, has encouraged a spirit of idle- 
ness which is the bane of trade and agriculture, and augments the 
numbers of the poor. In the cantons where the peasants bow the 



ROMANISM AND PROTESTANTISM. 153 

neck to the yoke of the clergy, men have lost all their energy, all 
elevation of mind. Servile and taciturn as slaves, they have forgotten 
their rights, and know nothing beyond the performance of a mechan- 
ical and unreasoning obedience. The Canton du Valais is celebrated 
throughout Europe for its filth, superstition, and wretchedness. " Mange 
pas les puces et les Pretres" (eaten up by lice and priests), is the pro- 
verb applied to its inhabitants throughout Europe. The population 
is behind the other cantons even in regard to agricultural operations 
and the management of cattle. They are inferior in education, 
knowledge, and science ; and are specially idle, negligent, and dirty. 
In the villages, at every door are seen horrible cretins, sickly, wretched, 
languishing, with an enormous head, lost in an immense goitre, their 
faces swollen and livid, the eyes sunk under the thick and heavy lids ; 
the flabby cheeks, the half-opened lips, with the tongue hanging out, 
and a filthy saliva round it. Some, scarcely covered with rags, lie 
warming their limbs in the sun ; others, seated on the laps of half- 
cretinized old women, resign their beards and heads to their inspec- 
tion, or moodily count their beads, muttering Aves and Pater Fosters. 
Medical men are decided that the causes of this deformed idiocy, 
cretinism, are moral as well as physical ; the neglect of education 
leads to their imbecility* Children are left to themselves, and exist 
like beasts. They wallow in the mire, seizing and devouring all they 
find there. In winter they pass whole days stretched in a room 
warmed by a stove. Drunkenness is the prevailing vice, and the 
population is universally superstitious, insensible to their own inter- 
ests, intractable and obstinate. 

Romanism had a hard battle to fight in Germany at the time of 
the Reformation. The North, represented by Prussia, became Pro- 
testant ; the South, under the influence of Austria, remained Ro- 
manist. In the latter, two powers, the government and the clergy, 
have united in working the nation to their mutual advantage. The 
clergy, at first, strove to govern both the people and the nobles ; but 

* Eaoul Eochette, Vol. III. p. 392. Lautier, Vol. II. p. 204. 



154: A VOICE TO AMERICA. 

these resisted, and took the place coveted by the clergy. The civil 
power is therefore roaster, only it reigns in the nation by the means 
and tutoring of the Church. A compromise exists ; the Church is 
the instrument^ the Government is the hand ; but the instrument acts 
according to its own aptitude, so that a harmonious concurrence 
exists between the two powers. Rome has fashioned Austria, although 
Rome obeys Austria, and the two forces have successfully enthralled 
the nation, by depriving it of liberty and education. Freedom of 
thought does not exist : there are twelve offices for the revision of 
books, and as many censors, at Vienna, Prague, and Milan. The 
advance of industry is stopped by an exaggerated prohibitive system ; 
her commerce in nowise answers to the extent of her monarchy, and 
her internal trade is scarcely half developed. 

There is no individual liberty ; the subject is a simple tenant ; he 
cannot be more. The lords judge between their own subjects ; they 
may even judge in their own cause. Up to 1846, except in Hungary, 
no peasant might emigrate, buy, sell, make a will, or marry, without 
authorization ; he was, in fact, a minor, kept under by perpetual 
legislative guardianship. 

Gallicia, a country possessing all the elements of wealth, has re- 
mained barren, and frightful indigence bears sway. In the wretched 
and repulsive-looking villages, narrow huts, formed of branches of 
■ rudely kept together with osier bands, and covered with straw 
and clay, surround a church. The other provinces of the empire are 
in similar condition; religion and misery go hand in hand. There 
is, as we before observed, no liberty of thought, no liberty of com- 
merce, no individual liberty; but instead, drudgery for the peasants, 
beating for the soldiers, humiliation for officials, and a villainous sys- 
tem of secret police. 

The different professions are enrolled to serve as spies, as also are 
the hackney-coachmen. Servants are called upon to tell what they 
know of their masters and households; door-keepers, tradesmen, and 
clerks render the same service. One-half of the people are spies 
upon the other half. 



ROMANISM AND PROTESTANTISM. 155 

Thanks to this abominable tyranny and vile superstition, Austria is 
falling daily in opinion ; the distrust and discontent which the govern- 
ment excites, germinate like fertile seeds, and will one day bear bitter 
fruits. 

Whilst Austria extinguishes the light of knowledge and forbids 
liberty of thought, Prussia, on the contrary, governs by means of that 
light and liberty. 

Prussia is a state in which instruction is very generally diffused 
and watched over with the greatest care : the number of schools in- 
creases annually. There is no country where science and learning 
are more encouraged, or cultivated with greater success, and the in- 
habitants have reached a high degree of moral and intellectual at- 
tainment. The government pays the greatest attention to public 
education, and the advancement of the arts and sciences. Freedom 
is granted to all religious denominations. 

The result of Luther's reformation in Germany was liberty of 
thought and opinion. No distinction was made between theological 
and philosophical truth, and public disputations were held on all 
subjects without opposition. Nowhere has the human mind been 
permitted to expand or express itself more freely than in Northern 
Germany: Liberty of thought and Protestantism are there united 
by strong ties, and German Philosophy is the daughter of the Ptef- 
ormation. The language even has felt the benefit : Protestants were 
the first to write it with intelligence, and this pure style is, in the 
countries subject to Austria, called Lutheran German. 

x\griculture is improving, manufactures increase, and trade flour- 
ishes. In fifteen years, Prussia has expended a capital of fifty-four 
million dollars in roads and railways. Throughout the country, 
beautiful villages spring up on every side ; the houses are well built, 
and almost concealed by the thick covering of vine leaves. The 
villagers universally wear bright, happy countenances, and their 
courteous manners and picturesque costumes all bespeak the con- 
tentment and comfort which reign among them. 

Such is Germany. In the South, Austria and her band of Romish 



156 A VOICE TO AMERICA. 

States career in the darkness of material despotism, without conscious- 
ness of the noble destiny of man. 

In the Xorth, Prussia, and her company of Protestant nations, 
blessed with increasing liberty, bask in the bright light of knowledge, 
in ceaseless speculations after God and immortality. 

Romanist Belgium and Protestant Holland having been alternately 
united and separated, cannot be so entirely different from one another 
as the countries we have already compared. During the last half 
century alone, Belgium has been successively under the rule of Infi- 
del France, of the Protestant Netherlands, and of its own Roman- 
ist government. These powers have each left an impression, and 
thus have modified the contrast which strikes us so forcibly else- 
where. 

In the eighteenth century, Belgium passed under the dominion of 
the French, then much irritated against priestcraft ; Belgians must 
in a measure have shaken off the same yoke, and lost some of their 
prejudices. If this were not an advance in good, it was at least a 
step out of evil. 

But it was especially from 1815 to 1830, under a Protestant gov- 
ernment, that Belgium received abundantly the treasures of freedom 
and civilization. Agricultural colonies were established, and flourish- 
ed ; institutions for the poor were founded ; a general increase of 
population and comfort ensued, and commerce received a great 
development. 

The advantages on the Romanist side, as regards soil and cli- 
mate, are very considerably in favor of Belgium in comparison with 
Holland. The former has a fertile soil, generously endowed by na- 
ture ; a ray of sunshine covers it with abundant crops ; it possesses 
mines of lead, copper, iron, alum, sulphur and calamine, quarries of 
marble, freestone, limestone, &c. 

In Holland, instead of these natural riches, we find water! water 
everywhere. While Brussels, the capital of Belgium, rests upon a 
rock. Amsterdam is built in the midst of the floods, on thirteen mil- 
lion stakes. What have the Belgian Catholics done with their fertile 



ROMANISM AXI) PROTESTANTISM. 157 

land in comparison with what the Dutch Protestants have made of 
their marshes ? 

Belgian agriculture is, at the present time, greatly below that of 
Holland. Travellers are struck with the wisdom with which the 
Dutch cherish every thing which tends to the improvement of that 
science. Their laborers enjoy an amount of comfort which contrasts 
strongly with the poverty of Flanders ; their dwellings are well kept, 
their clothes are clean and substantial ; all things bespeak ease and 
prosperity. There are scarcely any paupers amongst them, whilst in 
Belgium they form a seventh of the population. 

Since 1830, educational and scientific institutions have greatly 
fallen off in the latter country. What the Priesthood could not con- 
trol, they willingly allowed to decay ; they direct, at least partially, 
all primary instruction, not only as to religion and morals, but in 
every branch of education. In Holland, they take not the slightest 
part in public instruction ; they do not even visit the schools ; secta- 
rianism is not allowed to enter, but the master is charged to teach his 
pupils the rules of morality and the truths of the Gospel. 

The preponderance of the Romish clergy in Belgium is a bad 
omen for the future ; all things converge towards a moral and intel- 
lectual subjugation : the Jesuit system of education is greatly dreaded, 
for it aims at nothing less than the extinction of all free-will and 
spontaneous action. Belgium has greatly retrograded since her dis- 
ruption with Holland, whilst the latter has steadily progressed in 
freedom and civilization. 

Romanists are fond of citing France as proof positive of the civil- 
izing influence of their faith : but France is not Papal ; if she be 
any thing in ethics, she is Deist. We admit at the same time that 
some provinces, like Brittany, for instance, are really under the 
influence of the Popish clergy. We shall compare these districts 
with those localities in which Protestantism has many adherents. 
The Huguenots in France were in a similar position to that of the 
Irish Romanists. Both were persecuted by their respective govern- 
ments. We know to what depths of misery the Irish Papists sank ; 

8 



158 A VOICE TO AMERICA. 

their neglect of agriculture, their idleness, their frightful poverty 
Is the same sight offered to us by the equally persecuted Protest- 
ants? Gradually excluded from court employments, and from almost 
all civil posts, they applied themselves to agriculture, trade, and man- 
ufactures. The vast plains they possessed in Beam, and the West- 
ern provinces, were covered "with rich harvests. In Languedoc, 
the cantons peopled by them became the best cultivated and the 
most fertile, often in spite of the badness of the soil. In Guyenne, 
they took possession of almost the whole wine trade. In the two 
governments of Brouage and Oleron, a dozen Protestant families had 
the monopoly of the trade in salt and wine. The wealth of Alencon 
passed through their hands ; and the Protestants of Rouen earned on 
an immense commerce, especially with the Dutch. Those of Caen 
sold to the English and Dutch merchants the linen and woollen cloths 
manufactured in Normandy. It is to the Protestants that France 
owes her commerce at Bordeaux, La Ptochelle, and the Norman ports. 
In fine, nearly all the silk, cotton, linen, and paper manufactures were 
supported by them, and their tanneries in Touraine were renowned 
throughout the whole of Europe. 

This magnificent prosperity was annihilated by Romanism at the 
Revocation of the Edict of Nantes. England, Holland, Germany, 
and Denmark all received the flying Huguenots. The American 
colonies were largely benefited by the refugees. The uncultivated 
banks of the James River were by them transformed into fields 
covered with rich harvests. All Virginia admired the flourishing 
state of their model farms in the environs of Mannikin. In the 
State of New York, the founders of New La Rochelle, recoiled from 
no fatigue that might render productive the virgin land on the shores 
of the East River. Men, women, and children unceasingly labored 
until they converts! a wilderness into a smiling landscape; and in 
South Carolina they reared magnificent plantations on the banks of 
the Cooper. The agricultural colony on the banks of the Santee sur- 
passed all others in the same province, although the refugees were 
unaccustomed to that kind of labor. 



ROMANISM AND PROTESTANTISM. 159 

The Revocation of the Edict of Nantes, in 1685, had its reaction 
in the fearful atrocities of the French Revolution of 1*792. But a 
great Protestant element exists still in France, and we can compare 
their comparative prosperity with that of the Romanists., In Paris, 
the average personal tax paid by all the inhabitants is six dollars and 
twelve cents ; the average paid by the Protestants is seventeen dol- 
lars ; that is to say, the fortunes of the Paris Protestants are, at the 
present time, nearly three times that of their Romanist country- 
men. Throughout the length and breadth of France, the Protest- 
ant departments are the most industrious, most wealthy, and pay the 
highest taxes to the government. The six departments which sup- 
ply the primary schools with the largest amount of pupils, are those 
containing the largest number of Protestants. The six departments 
numbering the smallest number of pupils are precisely those which 
are exclusively Romanist populations. 

The Reformed Faith is making progress throughout France. At 
the same time, we must not ignore the fact that in many parts of the 
country-Romanism is very powerful, especially with the court. -Ser- 
vices rendered necessarily demand favors in return. Hence the decree 
placing education in the hands of the priests. The occupation of 
Rome is oft-times cited as a proof of Gallican support of the Holy 
See, but there were far too grave political reasons to prompt such a 
procedure for us to suppose that the French Government was, and is 
guided by mere faith, or reverence for a system which the Napoleons 
have always made subservient to their own purposes. As a nation, 
Frtmce is simply Deist ; and to this state has she been reduced by 
centuries of priestly domination and Romish superstition. 

In no country do the effects of Romanism and Protestantism so 
strike the observer as in Ireland. Here, as elsewhere, the fruitful 
South has fallen to the lot of the former, and the Reformation dis- 
plays its power in the comparatively barren North. The effect upon 
the Irish of the bad direction which the priest gives to their minds, 
is a prostration of their moral force, annihilating all their intellectual 
faculties, and blunting even the consciousness of misfortune and desire 



160 A VOICE TO AMERICA. 

to put an end to it. Ireland is peopled with poor ; mendicity seems 
almost the national characteristic. The Irish beggars are the Lazza- 
roni of England. 

The Romish population of Ireland live in huts, the walls of which 
are made of mud and flints, or of old and almost rotten planks ; the 
roof is composed of a layer of clods, spread over the laths. Gen- 
erally, no windows are to be seen. Light enters only by means of the 
door, or a hole made in the roof, which serves as a chimney. In this 
same damp shed live, pell-mell, two, three, and sometimes four gen- 
erations of human beings. The sow seems a member of the family — 
lying in the corner, surrounded and petted by the children. In these 
miserable abodes the Irish Romanists pass their lives, except when 
engaged in agrarian outrage, or resistance to the laws of the land. For 
centuries have they existed in this mauuer ; and when patriotic indi- 
viduals attempt a reformation of so horrible a state of things, the priests 
denounce the philanthropists from the altar, and cause their deluded 
congregations to lie in wait to assassinate them. Such is Papal Ireland ! 

The Irish of the North, living under the same laws. - tyrannized (?) 
over by the same government," show exactly a contrary picture. They 
devote themselves to manufactures and trade, and their linens surpass 
all others. The growth and manufacture of flax was commenced by 
Protestants, ami 1ms been maintained by them ever since. Belfast is 
a remarkable example of the prosperity of the Protestant towns of 
the North. There are special hospitals for the blind, deaf and dumb, 
fever patients, lunatics, the feeble; with asylums for penitent girls, lib- 
erated convicts, domestics out of place, and women out of wdrk. 
There are sixteen Protestant chapels to two Romanist ; and the 
inhabitants are almost all Protestants, and merchants. The houses 
arc well built, large, and convenient. Lovely villages are scar, 
through the country, well-built cottages stand in the midst of gardens 
profuse in flowers, the inhabitants are well dressed, and an air of con- 
tentment and happiness pervades every thing. 

As it is in prosperity, so is it in education and morality. Three- 
fourths of the criminals of Ireland are Romanists, and education is 



ROMANISM AXD PROTESTANTISM. 161 

scarcely known among them. In order to remedy such a frightful 
state of crime and ignorance, the English Government has lately estab- 
lished schools aud colleges, where religion as a study is rigorously 
excluded ; thus endeavoring to supply the wants of a mixed popu- 
lation, and eventually end sectarianism. Rome anathematizes these 
institutions, naming them the " Godless colleges," and denounces from 
the altar those enlightened parents who permit their children to fre- 
quent them. 

There is not an election in which we do not find instances of priests 
threatening from the altar those who voted for a Protestant candidate. 
The fearful riots which result from this interference are only quelled 
by the intervention of an armed force. Everywhere the Romanists 
are deficient in knowledge and wealth. They are the uneducated, 
the miserable, the servants of their own land. In short, turn where 
you will, the result is the same. The difference between Romanism 
and Protestantism is known by the appearance of every parish, every 
village, every house and cottage in the land. 

Italy ! Italy ! Mistress of the World ! the glory of Europe ! She 
had decked herself with the master-works of the human mind, like 
a queen adorning her brow. Michael Augelo was her architect; 
Raphael, Titian, and Da Vinci were her painters ; Dante, Petrarch, and 
Ariosto sang her praises. For her, Genoa and Venice unladed their 
rich argosies ;' emperors and kings were her willing vassals. Italy, 
possessing in her bosom the Infallible Head of the Church ; Italy, 
enjoying the pure influence of Romanism, and never suffering from 
heresy, — surely Italy must give high proofs of the blessed influence 
of .the Papacy ; but the Eternal City ! Imperial Rome ! is in ruins I 
Half her streets are deserted ; wretchedness and filth reign triumph- 
antly. The glory of the City of the Sea, Venice, is gone ; Genoa is 
fallen ; Florence is in tears ! Italians are distracted and desolate, the 
prey of ever-changing tyrants ! 

It is to Popery alone we must attribute the shame of the actual 
state of Italy. It is the work, the legitimate offspring, the exclusive 
pupil of the Papal power. Whatever Popery is able to accomplish, 



162 "A VOICE TO AMERICA. 

has been accomplished in Italy. Xo opposition has been offered 
there. On the contrary, Popery has been enthroned ; princes and 
people have bowed before it, as an idol ; and the Head of Roman- 
ism, armed with a triple tiara, held as infallible. The Roman Cai- 
phas, accepted as vice-God, has prepared and consummated this 
tremendous ruin. 

But there is a blight ray of hope for this glorious country of the 
past. Sardinia is waking up to liberty, and manfully striding on in 
the road to freedom. Rome is in agony ; her ministers fume, her 
Pontiff threatens excommunication and interdict. But bravely do 
Sardinia's king and people bear such Middle-Age threats ; and the 
secularization of the property of the Church, the appointment of 
bishops by the government, the annihilation of the monasteries, all 
go bravely on. Italy's salvation is in the North ; and we trust ere 
long to see a magnificent empire rising up, embracing Sardinia, Lom- 
bardy, and the lesser States, and setting free the city of Rienzi — 
Eternal Rome herself. 

But in order to appreciate the struggle between modern Romanism 
and Protestantism, we must leave Europe. Here they are both em- 
barrassed in their movements by too many old established customs 
and prejudices. Providence has given them a vast arena, where each, 
being surrounded by its own deeds, will be judged by them alone. 
The Church of Rome and the Reformation Lave each, in America, a 
world in which to try their civilizing power, — a duel which has hea- 
ven and earth for witnesses. America is a country of the future. She 
is a virgin, fertile, and extensive land. She has not, by degrading 
laws, closed the doors upon truth. Neither has she proscribed error : 
all forms, religions, governments, are admitted. Truth, eternal truth, 
will alone prevail. 

A magnificent armament, under the banners of imperial Spain, 
arrives in South America. The strength and chivahyof Europe land 
amidst wondering B] . They march from victory to victory. 

Untold treasures till the coffers of* the Church. Rome, in intoxica- 
tion, sings countless Te Deums. 



ROMANISM AND PROTESTANTISM. 163 

A. few men land, one by one, on the shores of North America ; 
poor, humble, and unknown. They bring with them but one book — 
the Bible. They open it on the strand ; and begin forthwith to build 
up the new city, on the plan of the book recovered by Luther. 

Hearken to the sound of tfce axe. The emigrant fells the primeval 
oak in the virgin forests ; the sweat inundates his brow. With toil 
and trouble he builds an unknown hut, near a running stream. The 
traveller scarce deigns to turn his head towards this humble dwelling, 
where the noise of the axe and hammer mingles with the chant of a 
psalm. But if, a few years later, he pass again by the same spot, he 
sees, by a sort of social miracle, in the place of the hut, a mighty em- 
pire rising from the earth. The poor emigrant has conquered a world ! 

In this immense arena the lists are opened between two religions. 
The doctrines of the Council of Trent have received, for the display of 
their strength, South America. There the founders are not isolated 
individuals, but on the contrary, according to Romanist principles, an 
association already forjned. A powerful empire, with all its resources, 
comes to take possession of the soil. Rich valleys and fertile plains 
seem to demand the living energy which would give birth to new 
empires. In order that the trial may be more decisive, Romanism 
alone is allowed to approach these shores. The civilization of the 
natives, which might have embarrassed her actions, disappears. Noth- 
ing remains but mighty nature, who, in her solitude, invites man to 
crown her with vast ideas, projects, innovations, kingdoms, gigantic 
as herself. But man remains motionless, bound by an invisible force. 

Throughout the entire continent of South America, it is impossible 
to enforce the observance of the most simple law or police regulation. 
The insolence of the inhabitants renders them hostile to every kind of 
control. Morals are in a state that makes us blush for humanity; 
manufactures are scarcely known ; commerce languishes, or is in the 
hands of foreigners ; society is utterly demoralized, and anarchy reigns 
supreme. From the Isthmus to the Horn, wherever Rome has planted 
her Faith, civilization flies. Revolution succeeds revolution, but no 
good results horn the change. South America is one vast moral 



164 A VOICE TO AMEEICA. 

charnel-house. Mexico, even, which should receive some beneficial 
influence from the neighboring states, is paralyzed by the priesthood, 
in alliance with despotism. Cuba, the brightest jewel in the bosom of 
ocean, for which nature has done so much and man so little, is ground 
down and cursed by this overwhelming*spiritual tyranny. Priestcraft 
pillages her, and military despots put her to death. Rome, wher< 
supreme, reduces society to chaos. 

What a magnificent contrast in the Protestant North! Forests 
have given place to fruitful fields ; cities spring up on every side : 
railroads stretch to remotest points ; commerce brings to her the 
wealth of the old world ; Science bridges her rivers, works her r< 
and canals; the Arts enshrine themselves in her midst; and Li. 
ture carries her glory into far-distant climes. Her Faith and her 
Progress are one and inseparable ; the dignity and independence of 
man, his self-reliance, have wrought this. Protestantism settled her 
finest States — it breathes through and animates her constitution ; her 
forefathers were the everlasting enemies of Rome and tyranny. In- 
stead of ignorance, we find education more diffused than in any other 
part of the world ; a school is as necessary to a village as houses ; 
and every succeeding year strives to surp last in improving in- 

struc 

The mind fails to grasp the le of such a people. When we 

see the progress accomplished in so short a period ; plenty every- 
re and misery nowhere; churches, schools, towns, manufactories, 
rising on all - - if by enchantment; forests cleared away almost 

as soon as discovered ; a hardy population, active, persevering, eag i 
for knowledge, and ever advancing, we are almost tempted to 

ry the lie, when we think how much has been done in so short a 
time. 

Romanism, op] ial and commercial progress, is de- 

fended by its subj h the specious remark that the chang 

nothing against the Church, because man is not made (or tins world, 
and, therefore, it makes but little difference wheth< r he be free, hap- 
py, prosperous, or otherwise, so long as he is an acceptable mem- 



ROMANISM AND PROTESTANTISM. 165 

ber of the Papal communion. This is the favorite argument to make 
the Irish people contented with the misery they suffer by the priest- 
ridden degradation in their native land. Another class of the defenders 
of the Papacy admit the commercial and social degradation of Papal 
nations, but assert that their decline in temporal prosperity is due to the 
change of the great routes of navigation. It is true that America and 
England obtained access to the East Indies around the Cape of Good 
Hope, but this route is, and was, open to Spain, Portugal, and all Ro- 
manist countries. No recent discoveries have altered the route to 
South America ; nearly the whole of that trade was hers, for her col- 
onies, eleven times the area of the mother country, were equal to In- 
dia in fertility ; rivers were more numerous and mineral productions 
far superior. England, and in fact the whole of Europe, could never 
reach the South American Continent as quickly as Spain, for the north- 
east trade-winds were in her favor, and those nations would always be 
compelled to take a southern course to reach the Gulf of Mexico. 
Portugal and Spain obtained a vast continent, besides possessions in 
the West Indies and North America. No change in navigation could 
possibly affect the development of these immense acquisitions ; but, 
as we have seen, ill government and superstition have left them a 
wilderness, and the very name of Spain an execration. 

But granting, for the sake of argument, that the carrying trade has 
been transferred, surely the loss of commerce cannot have plunged 
Spain, Portugal, and Italy into such moral debasement and political 
annihilation as they are now suffering. The asserters of so monstrous 
a proposition would make us believe that no country can prosper with- 
out commerce, which is palpably ridiculous. 'But if their argument 
be correct, why should Protestant Holland differ so materially from 
the above-mentioned countries ? She has lost the greater part of her 
commerce and colonies, yet we see no such moral debasement, no such 
reducing of man to the level of the brute as we find with them. 

Protestantism found the world in medieval barbarism ; feudalism 
and tyranny triumphant ; mankind in slavery and ignorance. She 
has disenthralled the people, blessed them with literature and science, 



166 A VOICE TO AMERICA. 

raised them to the virtue and dignity of men. Under her benign 
auspices they have learned the blessings of liberty, the charms of in- 
tellect, the triumphs of free government. She has given them a 
world, and taught them how, from a primeval forest, to carve out the 
glories of a rising empire, the terror of despotism, the star of hope to 
all nations. She has burst the barriers of three thousand years, and 
opened China to commerce and the West. She has forced Japan to 
obey her behests, and carried her faith into the polar zone. She has 
invented railroads, telegraphs, steam-engines, and countless appliances 
to benefit humanity. Her myriad pr rry heaven-born thought 

into far-off climes ; she commands the ocean, and commerce is obe- 
dient to her. Man, disenchained man, stands forth as sovereign of 
the universe, a being after the image of God. 



THE RIGHTS OF CONSCIENCE. 

" The small voice within 
I through gain's silence, aDd o'er glory's din : 
Whatever creed be taught, or land be trod, 
Man's conscience is the oracle of God." 

Byron. 

The American mind declares itself in favor of the right of every 
man to worship God after the dictates of his own conscience. It 
acts upon the constitutional dictation, that " no religious test shall 
ever be required as a qualification to any office or public trust under 
the United States." That in the first article of the Amendments of 
the Constitution it is declared, " that Congress shall make no law 
respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exer- 
cise thereof.'' Leaving every individual free to establish his own 
standard of qualification, and to vote for or against those who hold 
certain religious principles, or political views, as each one may see 
right in his own eyes. The war the American mind wages is for the 
freedom of religious opinion ; it only opposes the tyranny?- of priest- 
craft — a tyranny which educates its slaves that the Church is infal- 
lible, superior in authority to the civil power, and that unquestioned 
obedience is the highest duty of the layman. The American mind 
demands that the people of this country, whether native or alien, be 
brought to consider principalities and powers as entitled to consider- 
ation, only as they are creations of the Constitution and the laws. 
That they be imbued with the spirit of independence, and regard the 
principle of equality as an article of living political faith ; that they 
obey no authority, recognize no titles, save those which emanate from 
the civil power; that they admit no right to command on the part 



168 A VOICE TO AMERICA. 

of any Church, and no duty of obedience on the part of the laity ; 
that they see no peculiar sanctity in priestly robes, unless accom- 
panied by the superior sanctity of those who wear them ; that all 
deference to Church dignitaries is but the voluntary homage of the 
heart to exalted virtue ; that there is no divinity hedging in a king, 
and a mitred bishop, even of the See of Rome, is but a man, entitled 
to respect only as a man, and to extraordinary consideration, only as 
his Christian graces shine with a lustre superior to those of common 
men. 

The Pope of Rome claims to be the vicegerent of God, and infalli- 
ble ; that all power on earth, spiritual and temporal, is given him by 
Divine appointment ; that all countries and governments belong to 
him, and are either subject to his will and command, or in a state of 
criminal rebellion ; that all authority in Church and State which 
does not profess to be under him. and act in strict conformity to his 
commands, is unlawful and wicked ; that all religious opinions differ- 
ent from the dogmas of the Romish Church are heretical, and that 
those who profess them are heretics with whom no faith should be 
kept, whether plighted by contract or by oath ; that it is the highest 
duty of all Romanists to extirpate this heresy and these heretics by 
sword, fire, and fag ; by the same means to bring the poli- 

tical authorities to submit to the Pope in all things, and every human 
being to profess, and conform to the Romish faith ; and to tl 
thev intend to devote their time, their labor, their energies and 
pow I even expend their lives, which would be glorious martyr- 

dom. It is because of the entertainment of such a belief that Ro- 
manism is opposed, and the influence of foreigners, who blindly and 
sively consent to such doctrines, dreaded; for all modern his 
>hes us that, the fairest portions of the earth have been raw, 
with fire and sword to sustain these monstrous doctrines of a re] 
political institution. 

It is true, that Romanism has not attempted for many years, 
in its recent manifesto' il Sardinia, to assert its political and 

temporal j>. I t still, in its con- 



THE RIGHTS OF CONSCIENCE. 169 

stitution and principles, it adheres to these and all its other assumed 
powers. It has renounced none, nor will it do so. None of her 
exemplary children repudiate any of them, and if they did, they would 
be brought to recant by priestly visitation, or else have the spiritual 
thunder of excommunication denounced against them. For no higher 
offence than simply refusing to violate the most sacred enactments 
regarding church property existing in the State of New York, the 
trustees of the church of St. Louis, Buffalo, and its entire congrega- 
tion, were placed under ban. The Bishop of the diocese published 
the pains of excommunication against them, and held their names up 
to infamy and reproach. The marriage sacrament was refused, and 
the priest forbidden to minister at the alti 

The assertion of the full extent of the assumed power by the Papal 
Church only slumbers, because the condition of human affairs — the 
light, liberty, and moral power of the world, will not suffer it to be 
put into execution. It is not the advance and elevation of principle, 
of morals, and Christian charity in that Church, and among its priest- 
hood, which has purified it for the time being of these enormities. 
Let the state of the world favor it, and other Gregorys and Innocents 
would arise to enforce the powers of the Papacy in their utmost am- 
plitude, and their most inexorable spirit. She believes that she is to 
be coeval with man, and ultimately to have his whole and perfect 
obedience. She has seen the great flux and reflux of her authority 
through many centuries, and she is looking forward patiently through 
other centuries in confidence, when her strength in full tide is to come 
to her again. Ever watchful, the priesthood, for whom mainly this 
wonderful edifice has been constructed, and been progressing to per- 
fection in its way for fifty generations, will patiently bide their time ; 
and when it comes, if come it ever does, they will move with a policy, 
a courage, and a perseverance to command success ; and the grandest 
and most awe-inspiring scenes of the Papal drama will be again re- 
enacted on the theatre of the world. 

But whether it is the destiny of man to revolve back to Papal 
supremacy in all his affairs or not. that is the consummation to which 



170 A VOICE TO AMERICA. 

the whole priesthood devote themselves, their time, their energies, 
and their lives. That i one great object; compensating and 

supplying the subjects of their affections, hopes, and ambitions; 
taking the place of wife, children, friends, and country ; wealth, so- 
cial position, station, honors, fame, and distinction in the arts, sciences, 
politics, and "war. This ascendency, now partially lost, is their glorious 
tradition, and to regain it is the permanent, immutable, ever-present 
policy of the Papacy in all its parts. That the Pope is a hierarch, 
and they a portion of the hierarchy, is a part of the education, mind, 
soul, and personal identity of every member of the priesthood ; and 
not less so, that the business and ends of their lives and labors is to 
expend themselves according to times and circumstances, for the 
restoration of the authority and splendor of both ; and never to be 
disheartened or discouraged, whether or not there be any perceivable 
result. These are objects for which, in this country, the foreign 
priests especially labor. They summon every Papist, upon his reach- 
ing our shores, to his fealty, and hold them united and faithful to 
their religion, their priest, and their sovereign hierarch. They get 
possession of all the children they can, by means of schools, and their 
parents, where even but one of them is a Romanist, and they attend 
and keep these children from the cradle to the grave. 

The dying find it to the interest of their eternal welfare, to give the 
Church liberally of their worldly treasure ; and thus in every country 
it absorbs within its coffers a large share of the wealth of its devoted 
congregations. With signal flexibility and cunning it has addressed 
itself to the ruling power, and paid it court adulation, or used other 
means to win it ; and when won, it may do what it will, on condition 
that it becomes Bubservient to the peculiar views of this priesthood 
and its hierarchy. They know that in our country the main-spring 
of political power is the ballot-box, and the object of their unceasing 
efforts is there to collect and consolidate strength. The members of 
all other sects divide in their politics and votes, but foreign Romanists 
never, and the priest thus has in his hands their absolute will, and it 
becomes a matter of calculation bow tin's tremendous engine of power 



THE RIGHTS OF CONSCIENCE. 171 

can best be used to build up, not the interests of America nor the 
happiness of the people, but the ever-absorbing pretensions of the 
Papal Church. 

The possession of this voting power is denied, and so is every 
working principle of the Church denied, where a frank acknowledg- 
ment would operate against its interests ; but the fact that our most 
unscrupulous office-seekers are constantly paying court to the priests, 
and in every possible way endeavoring to build up the interests of 
their Church, tells its own tale, for where the carcass is, there will be 
the buzzards also, and where there are votes to be purchased, there 
will be the demagogue and the trading politician. 

But the organs of the Papacy printed among us, occasionally thrown 
off their guard by some unexpected success, sometimes let us into 
their plans and future aspirations. We occasionally have the boldest 
avowals of the intention of usurping our government, of destroying 
our liberties, and shaping every thing to the standard of priestly am- 
bition. Denying, as all true Americans do, the Divine right of any 
human being to govern, the chief organ of Romanism therefore ridi- 
cules the permanency of our institutions, and breaks out in the fol- 
lowing rhapsody : — 

" Are your free institutions infallible ? Are they founded on Divine 
right ? This you deny. Is not the proper question for you to discuss, 
then, not whether Papacy be or be not compatible with Republican 
government, but whether it be or be not founded in Divine right ? 
If the Papacy be founded in Divine right, it is supreme over what- 
ever be founded only in human right, and then your institutions 
should be made to harmonize with it, and not it with your institu- 
tions. The real question then is, not the compatibility or incompati- 
bility of the Catholic Church with democratic institutions, but is the 
Catholic Church the Church of God ? Settle this question first. But 
in point of fact, democracy is a mischievous dream, wherever the 
Catholic Church does not predominate, to inspire the people with 
reverence, and to teach and accustom them to obedience and au- 
thority. The first lesson for all to learn, the last that should be for- 



172 ' A VOICE TO AMERICA. 

gotten, is — to obey. You can have no government where there is 
no obedience ; and obedience to law, as it is called, will not be long 
enforced, where the fallibility of law is clearly seen and freely admit- 
ted: But is it the intention of the Pope to possess this country \ 
Undoubtedly. In ihis intention he is aided by the Jesuits, and all 
the Catholic prelates and priests. That the policy of the Church is 
dreaded and opposed by all Protestants, infidels, demagogues, tyrants, 
and oppressors, is also unquestionably true. Save then, in the dis- 
charge of our civil duties, and in the ordinary business of life, there is, 
and can be no harmony between the Catholics and Protestants."* 

" The time has come when Catholics must begin to make their 
principles tell upon the public sentiment of the country. Heretofore 
we have taken our j)olitics from one or another of the parties which 
divide the country, and have suffered the enemies of our religion to 
impose their political doctrines upon us ; but it is time for us to begin 
to teach the country itself those moral and political doctrines which 
flow from the teachings of our own Church. We are at home here, 
wherever we may have been born ; this is our country, and as it is 
to become thoroughly Catholic, we have a deeper interest in public 
affairs than any other of our citizens. The sects are only for a- day ; 
the Church forever. We care little how the elections go, for that is 
■all affair; but we can never, as Catholics, be indifferent to the 
moral principles which enter into the laws and shape the public 
policy of the country."* 

These extracts, so characteristic of the arrogance of the Priest, 
avow most distinctly all the ambitious designs imputed to the Roman 
thood. The proposed discussion of the great practical political 
questions is announced, that this country itself may be taught the 
moral and political doctrines which flow from the teachings of the 
Church, and may become thoroughly Roman — all other sects being 
for a day, and that Church forever; and that our Republican institu- 
tions maybe altered to conform to the Papacy, by its principles 

* Brownson's Roviow. 



THE RIGHTS OF CONSCIENCE. 173 

being made to enter into the laws and to shape the public policy of 
this country — all this is here boldly avowed ; and also that every 
Jesuit, Prelate, and Priest, who is faithful to his religion, will aid the 
Pope, their hierarch, to possess himself of this country. The means 
by which they expect to achieve all this, is by the slow and cautious 
movements, the profound dissimulation and arts, which have ever 
characterized the operations of this priesthood, to get possession of 
the political power by controlling the ballot-box. "Whether they 
ever succeed or not, that is their sleepless effort ; and so subtle are 
they in their operations, that thousands are unconsciously made 
their agents who would never knowingly submit themselves to 
any such purposes of mischief. The priesthood are encouraged by 
their own strong faith, that, if they do not succeed in this century, 
their successors may in the next, for their system is, never to re- 
linquish a foothold gained. They do not build humble cabins or 
perishable houses for their services ; their edifices, composed of granite 
and iron, are planted deep in American soil, their names indicate 
promised supremacy, and the States in which they are erected are 
called, with arrogant assumption, "provinces of the Holy See." 

Whatever may be the result of these great projects, the future can 
alone reveal, but their prosecution is utterly opposed and hostile to 
the design, spirit, and practical ends of our system and institutions. 

In carrying out this vast plan of aggression, no respect is paid to 
the laws of any country that interfere with the general plan. The 
ends justify the means. Thus we see the Grand Council of Bishops 
sitting in Baltimore in 1829, solemnly passing the following as a 
fundamental rule of the Church : — 

" Whereas lay trustees have frequently abused the right granted to 
them by the civil authority, to the great detriment of religion and 
scandal of the faithful, we most earnestly desire that in future no 
church be erected or consecrated, unless it be assigned by a written 
instrument to the Bishop in whose diocese it may be erected for the 
Divine worship and use of the faithful, wherever this can be done." 

Now these Bishops, mostly foreigners, inflated with the idea of 



174 A VOICE TO AMERICA. 

their infallibility, thus deliberately demanded, wherever it could be 
done, the violation of the whole spirit of our constitution and laws, 
and have acted upon this treason ever since, aud would probably have 
carried it on under the secrecy of their movements, had it not been 
dragged to light by the appeal to the civil laws of some few inde- 
pendent trustees, who denied that their Bishops must rule them in 
temporal matters. 

So persevering, indeed, are these Bishops, that in the State of New 
York, even before the special law confining church property to the 
ownership of trustees had been fairly spread upon the statute books, 
Bishop Hughes dedicated in Brooklyn, the church of " St. Mary, Star 
of the Sea," and in his sermon announced to his congregation, that 
that very church did not in its titles conform to the civil laws of the 
land ! and that the Trustee system was " uncatholic and heretical ;" 
and the inference in the minds of his congregation of course followed, 
that no faith was necessarily to be kept with such laws * 

The American has no hostility to the Roman Church as a system 
of religious faith, notwithstanding he conscientiously dissents from 
its essential dogmas and doctrines. He makes no war against the 
religion of any sect. It is only in its political phases, and its spi- 
ritual connection inseparably blended with them, that he opposes 
the Church of Rome. To that extent, all true lovers of liberty 
have the constitutional right to animadvert upon it. It- efforts to 
connect itself with the politics of the country, not for the sake of 
office, but for the purpose of controlling the officers to its own 
will and advantage; to imbue them with the spirit and doctrines 
of its peculiar faith, — these are the things, so comprehensive in their 
hostility to our system of civil and religious freedom, to which alone 
the American .-xpresses his determined hostility. The union of poli- 
tics and religion, of Church and State, have ever prove.! themselves 
to be the direful curses of man; and in every pulsation of the heart, 

* Bee Tribune of Monday, \\ i 55, and other New York daily papers, 

for Report of Bishop Hughes' Sermon upon the occasion of consecrating the 
church known as " St. Mary, Star ofl Brooklyn, Now York. 



THE RIGHTS OF CONSCIENCE. 175 

in every ray of reason, in every emotion of the soul, the true and 
patriotic American, will make war against every and any religious 
association, which seeks to bring about an alliance so much to be 
dreaded. 

Our ancestors came to this New World to enjoy, themselves and 
their posterity forever, perfect civil and religious freedom, and the 
right of inquiry, thought, and the expression of opinion upon subjects, 
short of invasion of the rights of others, unfettered as the winds of 
heaven. The divorce of Church and State, of politics and religion, 
of temporal and spiritual affairs, they have provided for in our con- 
stitutions, and it was intended to be absolute, complete, and forever. 
In the scheme of the hierarch of Rome and his emissaries — spread 
and spreading over the face of this country, to revolutionize silently 
and stealthily this order of things — they now have at their command 
an immense army of voters, perfectly trained to do their bidding. At 
every election, local or general, this mighty force is made to act with 
a view, present or remote, to the grand objects of those who control 
it. The certain and promptest way to get large accessions — acces- 
sions which, in another generation, may give them the mastery at 
the polls — is, to permit no restriction upon emigration, or upon the 
faculty of the immigrant to vote and exercise a full share of political 
sovereignty. All attempts to put upon them any restriction will 
meet the inflexible opposition, the anathemas of every Roman priest, 
and probably of almost eveiy Romanist in America. 

All this host of foreign Romans, now here and coming, are 
brought up to the confessional, at least once a year, to make a full 
avowal of their sins, by whispering them into the priest's ear, and 
whoever omits it is to be excommunicated, and if he die, is not to 
be allowed Christian burial. This is the function of the priesthood, 
which brings up before it all the liegemen of the Papal empire, 
and bows all in utter subjection and submission to it. When the 
noviciate for the first time, with convulsive excitement, breathes into 
the ear of the ghostly father the deep and criminal secrets of the 
heart, the soul is enslaved forever ; a chain of adamant is thrown 



176 A VOICE TO AMERICA. 

around it, and that chain is held by this priest. Even then he may 
grant or withhold absolution and forgiveness. Such are the mighty 
spells which Romanism brings over all her sons and daughters ; and 
those who work them, control not only their acts and conduct, but 
their thoughts and emotions. And how often is this puissaDce of the 
priesthood exhibited strikingly in our country. Bands of rude and 
stormy foreign Romanists, who have traditionary feuds, are loitering 
in the same neighborhood. They meet in bloody affray. The civil 
officer of the law interposes and is unheeded. He calls to his aid a 
large constabulary force, which is laughed to scorn by the infuriated 
mob. The military is summoned to uphold the civil authority, and 
blank cartridges are fired among the combatants, but no more re- 
garded than the whistling of the winds. At length death-dealing 
bullets begin their fatal office, and men fall, but the fight still rages. 
Lo ! the priest makes his appearance, the contending mass of men 
pause at once, and give attention. He speaks a few words, the tem- 
pest of excited passion ceases, and savage men are subdued as children 
under the rebuke of an invisible power. These men all vote ; but is 
it not the madness of folly to say, that their wills, when under such 
control, are represented at the polls \ 

There are numerous Romanists, natives of these States, who possess 
every element pertaining to good citizens, men who are every way 
able to assume the responsibility of self-government, and discharge 
with honor every political privilege imposed upon them ; but these 
iin mi, educated in this country of light and liberty, of the Bible and 
•free schools, are not representatives of the Romanists of Europe. 
The immigrant is radically imbued with the spirit of decayed dynas- 
ties; he was never taught that he had rights and an individuality. 
On the contrary, his whole history has been one of humiliation; he 
was made to feel thai lie formed an insignificant part of a great all- 
grasping institution, claiming the whole earth's - itual and 
temporal. The trembling worshipper at the foot of a hierarchy, and 
the Pope a hierarch. Such arc the notions the Romanist immigrant 
brings to our land, and, under the guidance of the priests that foster 



THE RIGHTS OF CONSCIENCE. 177 

him, cherishes while here as his life's blood. It is the influence of 
this false education (profanely called religious) against which the 
true American declares eternal war.* 

"A mono- lukewarm partisans and ardent antagonists, a small num- 
ber of believers exist, who, in defence of their faith, are ready to brave 
all obstacles, and to scorn all dangers. They have done violence 
to human weakness, in order to rise superior to public opinion. Ex- 
cited by the effort they have made, they scarcely know where to stop. 
They look upon their contemporaries with dread, and recoil in alarm 
from the liberty which their fellow-citizens enjoy. They are at war 
with their age and country, and they look upon every opinion which 
is put forth, as the necessary enemy of their faith."! 

Such men, in demanding liberty of conscience for themselves, deny 
it unto others ; and the step is rapid from intolerance to persecution. 
But our Constitution, in guaranteeing perfect religious freedom to all, 
will not justly be charged with abjuring its principles, if it compel 
these bigots to award the same deference to the opinions of others, 
which they enjoy for their own. 

The determination on the part of any Church to force its faith 
upon another — the tendency to proselytize at all hazards — is certain 
to lead to a state of anarchy in which liberty cannot exist. When 
such views are openly avowed and acted upon by any creed, it be- 
comes necessary, for the safety of others, either to prevent its resi- 
dence in our midst, or so to fence about and confine it within the 
strict bounds of legality, as to render it incapable of mischief. Re- 
ligion is a question on which w T e cannot legislate; it is a matter 
concerning the individual, not the mass. But if the creed of any 
party attempt to control temporal affairs by means of a so-called 

* At the last celebration of St. Patrick's day in New York city, the Irish 
guests (intoxicated with zeal by an inflammatory speech of one of the several 
priests present on the occasion) announced themselves as supporters of Ameri- 
can freedom and the hierarchy. It would be difficult to imagine one mind 
supporting two things more directly antagonistic; yet the announcement was 
perfectly consistent with the gentlemen's ideas of American liberty. 

f De Tocqueville. 



178 A VOICE TO AMERICA. 

spiritual power, the Constitution of our country is only carrying out 
its high and holy mission, by restraining their ambitious views with 
wholesome and necessary coercion. The framing of laws to bring 
about this coercion, however, would not only be difficult, but almost, 
if net quite, impossible. It is, therefore, necessary that the citizen 
should have correct opinions, and that the desired effect should be 
produced by the force of public opinion, rather than by written laws. 



RELIGIOUS TOLERATION. 

"True religion 
Is always mild, propitious, and humane ; 
Plays not the tyrant, plants no faith in blood ; 
But stoops to polish, succor, and redress, 
And builds her grandeur on the public good." 

Miller. 

The opposition which exists in the mind of every American against 
oppression, causes a dislike to any and every institution, no matter 
what may be its name, that is the support of the oppressor. In 
looking over European countries, the larger portion of their inhabit- 
ants are found to be sunken into the lowest depths of ignorance and 
semi-barbarism. They have no denned rights, and are the uncom- 
plaining servants of aristocratic rulers. Upon one subject alone they 
seem thoroughly instructed, and that is, to render slavish obedience 
to the priests, and the ceremonies of the Roman Church. Hearing a 
service on the Sabbath-day conducted in a dead language, and studi- 
ously debarred from all the ordinary channels of information so 
common in America, their minds are literally in the chains of igno- 
rance, and to keep them there confined is brought to bear the whole 
machinery of the Roman Church. One of the most vital principles 
of our government is religious toleration ; the American, whatever 
may be his creed, shrinks from any imposition upon the conscience, 
and hence it is that the grossest abuses may creep into our body 
politic, if profanely sanctioned by the garb of religion, and for that 
reason it is difficult and delicate to discuss the causes of this European 
degradation, because it is at once urged by the Jesuit and the dema- 
gogue, that any determination of the citizens of this country to make 
a distinction between the political and religious character of the 



180 RELIGIOUS TOLERATION. 

Roman Church, is an attack upon the rights of the conscience, and 
at once the cry of persecution is raised. Whatever may be the ex- 
citement, the work has to be done ; it is the duty of the true Romanist 
as well as the true Protestant to examine this subject dispassionately 
and come to a perfect understanding, for upon it rests at this mo- 
ment, more than upon any other thing, the perpetuity of our free 
institutions. 

The enthusiastic lover of liberty has heretofore argued, that under 
the bright rays of religious toleration, the minds of our most ignorant 
naturalized citizens would insensibly be enlightened, and that the 
most bigoted would gradually become converted to charity, and that 
the beauty of our political system would thoroughly absorb their 
affections, to the exclusion of any fondness for anti-republican senti- 
ments and oppressive political institutions. But, so far from this 
being the case, the experience of the last few years develops the 
melancholy fact, that men born in this country, and deservedly 
honored for their general intelligence, can sometimes, under the 
severe discipline of Romish institutions, be brought to support them 
with all the enthusiasm and Jesuitical casuistry that characterizes the 
uneducated European or the designing ecclesiastic. It is but recently 
that a gentleman of national reputation, in making a defence of the 
Pope and his authority upon the floor of Congress — a gentleman who 
is possessed of great knowledge and a keen sen-,' of truth when 
treating of civil or general matters — boldly announced that the Pope 
had no political power, that he never meddled himself with govern- 
ments, but confined his authority to religious matters alone. But 
even while the echoes of his voice were vibrating in our national 
Capitol, the news from the Italian States announced, that the Pope, 
finding he could not arrest the progress of liberal opinions in Sardinia, 
had issued a " Bull," releasing all Romanists of that kingdom from 
allegiance to their civil rulers! 

We find also that gentlemen in our various Legislatures, who 
ordinarily love the truth and respect the lessons of history, proclaim- 
ing that the Roman Church is the friend and encourager of free 



A VOICE TO AMERICA. 181 

institutions, while they know, and often from personal observation 
too, that the people of the Papal States are the most degraded, and 
the farthest removed from freemen, of any other government of the 
world; and that in all Papal countries, oppression and decay are 
paramount, just in proportion as they acknowledge the influence of 
the Romish power. 

To the ingenuous American mind, these strange misrepresenta- 
tions of history for the purpose of defending the Roman Church are 
hard to understand, and they can only be accounted for on the prin- 
ciple, that that Church seizes upon the imagination and the will of 
its adherents, and blinds them to the plainest truths, and makes them 
unresisting instruments for the propagation of the most pernicious 
errors. 

In no Romanist country is there any real religious toleration ; seven- 
eighths of our emigrants are brought up and educated to believe 
that such toleration is an unpardonable sin. Sunken in poverty, 
and suffering from the severest oppression, they leave their native 
countries and seek a home on American soil ; but, do they leave 
behind them the errors of their early education ? Are they forever 
freed from the presence and baleful influence of their political priests ? 
Certainly not. So far from this being the case, we find the Jesuit 
follows in their footsteps, and, taking advantage of the freedom of 
Protestant institutions, manages to exert a power over the minds and 
consciences of our immigrant population, as perfect as if they lived 
under monarchical governments. The American, perceiving this 
evil, and noticing its political character, denounces it from the stump, 
through the press, and attempts to counteract it at the polls; in- 
stantly the cry is raised by the wily Jesuit and the office-seeking 
demagogue, of religious intolerance, and people, who never breathed 
one breath of Christian charity, who, as an act of religious faith, de- 
nounce all who differ from them as heretics and heathen— people 
who are prepared, at any moment they can grasp the power of the 
State, to punish freedom of thought with imprisonment and death, 
go forth in the highways and byways denouncing American citizens, 

9 



182 RELIGIOUS TOLERATION. 

who desire to protect the purity of their institutions from the evils of 
this foreign influence. 

In America alone is enjoyed in the fullest sense the right to wor- 
ship God according to the dictates of the conscience. Americans 
conceived and put in practice such toleration ; but while it is freely 
enjoyed here by the Romanists, and demanded as a right, still it is 
not accorded to Americans in Romanist countries, and this illiberal 
spirit finds advocates and meets with justification in the organs of 
Romanism, and the gross inconsistency seems to be unnoticed. 

The Island of Cuba is the resort of hundreds and thousands of our 
citizens, either as mariners, merchants, or invalids ; among the latter 
are many who visit the island to die, and yet to this day there is no 
Protestant chapel, nor clergymen to give spiritual instruction. Any 
attempt to hold Protestant service calls forth the interference of the 
police ; and it was only recently that an English Bishop, visiting 
Havana, was denied the privilege of celebrating religious service in 
the house of the British Consul. 

There is no American Protestant chapel in Mexico, and it would 
be impossible to establish one. 

In Italy, the central country of Romanism, with the exception of 
the Pope-denounced kingdom of Sardinia, no religious service could 
be held by an American Protestant minister, unless it were in the 
house of the American Consul, and under the American , 

In Romanist Spain and Austria, the war upon Protestants amounts 
to a total exclusion under all circumstances. 

In Portugal, the penal code, promulgated as recently as 1852, 
punishes with imprisonment and fine all who engage in acts of 
worship not of the Romanist religion. 

American Protestants are exposed to insult and maltreatment in 
Mexico, Central America, all South America, Cuba, Porto Rico, Spain, 
Portugal, Austria, and Dearly all of Italy, if they do not kneel when 
they meel a procession bearing "the Bost," although they may con- 
scientiously deem the ;i.-t idolatrous, and contrary to the word of 
God. The records of every year are filled with details of outrages 



A VOICE TO AMEBICA. 183 

perpetrated, for the reason above given, upon Americans travelling 
abroad. 

The right, in many Romanist countries, of quietly depositing in the 
mother earth the remains of the dead, is denied to American Pro- 
testants, and the living have had to carry the deceased many hundred 
miles, to find a resting-place under the aegis of less bigoted govern- 
ments. "Where the privilege is granted, it is attended, as in some 
parts of Italy, with the degrading condition that the burial shall take 
place at unseasonable hours — and American Protestants have been 
unceremoniously thrust into the earth as if they were brute beasts, 
to avoid exhumation and insult from the imbruted populace, who 
were thus inflamed against' the religion of the deceased by the 
bigoted priests. 

A few years ago, a highly respectable American merchant had the 
misfortune to lose a beloved wife, whom he had taken to the Island 
of Cuba for the restoration of her health. Abandoned by all the 
people who surrounded him, he was compelled in an obscure spot to 
dig a grave with his own hands, and with difficulty succeeded in 
procuring the help of two negroes, to assist him in the melancholy 
task of consigning all that was once so cherished to its mother earth ; 
and yet these Africans, pagan-born and besotted in ignorance, had 
been taught to fear for their lives, if it were known to the authorities 
they had assisted in the " burial of a heretic !" 

Mr. Wise, late U. S. minister to Brazil, states, that Mr. Tudor, our 
Charge to that government, — the successful negotiator of a treaty 
of amity and commerce, and the representative of the greatest Re- 
public in the world, — was indebted to the British legation for a 
sanctuary for his corpse, and but for this charity, the Romanist govern- 
ment of Brazil would probably have spurned the body of Mr. Tudor 
from its dominions, the hatred of heretics extending even into the 
grave. Mr. Wise establishes himself in his new residence, he has 
his family around him, he has been accustomed to advocate and to 
grant religious toleration. He is the minister plenipotentiary of a 
great nation, and should command respect ; but the Sabbath comes, 



184 RELIGIOUS TOLERATION. 

he hears the bells chiming for church, dismay seizes upon him and 
his household, and he exclaims, in the true sense of his deprivation, 
" "Where am I and my family and American friends to attend Divine 
worship ? There is no ground here consecrated for us ! We are re- 
minded on this Lord's day of our homes in our own blessed, happy 
land of universal tolerance in religion, but here, by treaty in a land 
of commercial friends, we have no religious allies, and are indeed 
' strangers in a strange land !' If their God is our God, their country 
is not ours to worship in !" 

In all Protestant countries, Romanists enjoy the liberty of religious 
worship. Everywhere they may fill not only magisterial, but even 
political offices. O'Connell, the champion of that Church, was a 
member of the British Parliament ! Examples of the same liberality 
can be found in the governments of Prussia, Holland, Sweden, Den- 
mark, and the United States. Toleration is the fundamental spirit 
of the organic law. Not an example can be quoted where the reli- 
gious worship of the Romanist Church is impeded in a Protestant 
country, as that of the Protestant is, in Rome, Naples, Florence, 
Milan, Madrid and Lisbon, and the South American States. 

The mass of the people of France are tolerant, but the Roman 
clergy are restless under their loss of power, and watch with unceas- 
ing energy to restore their fortunes by giving their influence to the 
usurper of the nation's liberties. Napoleon III. found the. priests his 
most willing tools, and the first to forgive his falsehoods and his 
perjuries.* Their political influence was bought at the price of the 
imperial recognition of their religion; the effect is already felt, 
AYithout any repeal of fundamental law T s, Protestantism is discou- 
raged, its schools under various pretexts successively suppressed, and 
its publications prohibited. 

In Austria, all Protestant meetings require the sanction of the 
police; the government thus prevents them, without appearing to 

* "May lie (Louis Napoleon I be blessed, this man of God, tliis great man, for 
it is (led who has raised him up for the happiness of our country. 1 ' — Bishop of 
Chalons' Address to his Clergy, September, 1854. 



A VOICE TO AMERICA. 185 

prohibit ; and ihose persons who have presumed to publish or propa- 
gate the Bible, have been banished at the instigation of the Romish 
clergy. 

In Spain but one religion is professed, and none other is permitted 
in any shape. To be a Spaniard implies necessarily to be a Romanist. 
He who dares to forsake that faith is by law banished, lest the poison 
of his heresy should spread contagion, while those who have tempted 
him from his early faith are liable to imprisonment. Hitherto the 
traveller was looked upon as an exception ; but as Spain decays in 
political power, as she sinks into contempt among the family of 
nations, Papacy grasps her soul more firmly, and her priest-ridden 
government decrees, that even the " traveller' is no longer permitted 
" to profess any but the Romanist religion ;" and the American Pro- 
testant, while residing in Spain, must hide his religious sentiments, 
and, when dead, must be cast as some foul thing into an obscure, 
and, by the Spanish people, what is considered a dishonored grave. 

Tuscany is notorious, and Naples infamous for its intolerance. 
The Madiai persecution, which, roused the sympathy of the Protestant 
world, and yet found defenders among the foreign Papists of this 
country, is but a single instance of many, that, in spite of the secrecy 
of Jesuit police, and the depths of Italian dungeons, find their way 
before the judgment-seat of enlightened Christendom. Naples, where 
nature appears in its most glorious forms, and where man alone is 
b asej — Naples, which in days of yore coped with the haughty Pontiffs 
of Rome, the decrees of the Council of Trent, and trampled upon 
Papal Bulls, — now lies prostrate in the dust. Violent, bigoted, and 
profligate, her people violate every precept of morality, yet observe 
every ceremonial of religion. They are the degraded vassals of in- 
tolerance, without alleviation, and without hope. 

At last we penetrate into the " imperial city," and reach Rome 
itself. If other countries have admitted unjustifiable Papal claims, 
if other countries have harbored the Inquisition, it was here the 
haughty thunders were launched. Here intolerance reigns supreme. 
Here it had its birth, here it has made its throne. Here it was that 



Igg RELIGIOUS TOLERATION. 

Gregory XHI. rejoiced over the slaughter of the Huguenots, and 
ordered a Te Deum to be sung, with illuminations for the people, 
and, for the benefit of posterity, a medal in brass commemorative of 
the o-lorious event ! Here it is, in our own da}-, where the Pope, in 
a studied allocution, congratulates Christendom because Spain re- 
lapses into the intolerance of bygone centuries. When New Grenada, 
not a year ago, by decrees established a free press, free education, and 
tolerance in religion, from Rome comes another allocution, condemn- 
ing such fearful approaches to " hated liberty," which are denounced 
" as horrible and sacrilegious war against the Romish Church ;" and 
her citizens are stimulated to open rebellion against their rulers by 
the Pope's annunciation, that he " declares utterly null and void all 
the aforesaid decrees, which have been enacted by the civil power." 
The Pope knows, " That wherever religious liberty exists, it will, first 
or last, bring in an established political party ; wherever it is sup- 
pressed, the Church Establishment will, first or last, become the en- 
gine of despotism, and overthrow, unless it be itself overthrown, every 
vestige of political liberty."* 

The cause of this intolerance is fundamental with the Roman 
Church; it cannot alter its character without losing its individu- 
ality. Styling itself " Infallible," its claims cannot be set aside. Its 
intolerance, its ministers say, arises from authority ; it is therefore 
legitimate, and to yield would be sacrificing to licentiousness. Nor 
do the advocates of Romanism claim the virtues of liberality so much 
admired by the true-hearted American. They are willing to enjoy 
the advantages of liberty, and shelter their institutions under the 
broad folds of our tolerant flag. The Jesuits themselves, a proscribed 
class of political priests even among most of the countries devoted to 
Romanism, find here a foothold, and, from the unsuspicious character 
of our people, scarcely call forth an observation to their ulterior de- 
signs, of sapping our liberties and changing the character of our in- 
stitutions. Yet all this toleration on our part meets with no response 

* Justice Story. 



A VOICE TO AMERICA. 187 

from the Romanist hierarchy or people. The hierarchy hate and feai 
it ; the lay members, if they cherish any admiration, dare not express 
it. Hence we find that no minister at Washington representing a 
Romanist country acknowledges the superior Christian liberality 
of our government, nor has it ever been officially reciprocated or 
commended. The Romanist journals published in America never 
advocate religious toleratiou ; on the contrary, they threaten, if their 
cherished doctrines gain the ascendency, that toleration will cease ; 
and special care is taken by the priests, who are with few exceptions 
foreigners, to cultivate and encourage among our immigrant Romanist 
population, the same bitter hostility to the " heretic" that characterized 
their chief education in their native land. The American, in consider- 
ation of these facts, finds no difficulty in distinguishing between the 
abuse of the name of religion, and religion itself. He strips the 
matter of its complications, and, giving to the conscience full liberty, 
opposes political tendencies and practices calculated to destroy out- 
Republican institutions ; he opposes a political system despotic in its 
organization, anti-republican in its tendencies, and at utter war with 
the simplicity of our whole government. 

It is only as a hierarchy, as a religio-political institution, having 
vast political projects, and organized for political action, and because 
its principles, purposes, and operations are utterly inimical to popular 
and American constitutional liberty, to all civil and religious freedom, 
that the true American stands up in opposition to it. Until Ameri- 
can Romanists call their general councils, and purge their system 
of its interior and harsh ecclesiastical despotism ; until they join 
together as a body, and demand the same toleration for American 
Protestants abroad, that Romanists everywhere receive in America ; 
until they announce to the Pope and the world that his supremacy 
is only spiritual, and out of his Papal dominions in Italy, he, nor his 
priests, have right to interfere in politics or temporal affairs; that 
they owe him or his hierarchy no duty or obedience incompatible 
with their full and perfect allegiance to the United States, or any of 
the States, or that is hostile to any of the principles of their govern- 



183 RELIGIOUS TOLERATION. 

ments ; that they are opposed to, and will ever resist the union of 
Church and State, and any mixing of their affairs ; until they bid, 
and will compel their priesthood to cease their meddling with the 
government and politics of the country, with a view to shape its laws 
and policy for their ulterior purposes, and to desist from their efforts 
to control the entire Romanist vote of America ; — Until these things 
are done, no native American, no true friend of liberty, wherever 
born or whatever be his religion, can conscientiously cease his op- 
position to this great religio-political institution ; for the very spirit 
of self-preservation requires, that war be waged as much upon an 
aggressive religious power, as upon an aggressive civil power, for 
both are equally hostile to our Republican institutions. 

Religion is a question between man's conscience and his God. No 
government can interfere with it, except to guarantee perfect freedom 
to all, in the exercise of that faith which each has seen fit to embrace ; 
or to prevent a persecuting system of proselytism, which history shows 
us has been the characteristic of every religious sect in all ages. A 
government guaranteeing toleration to every Church, has the right to 
compel them to tolerate each other. 

Religion is perfectly distinct from, and cannot possibly be any part 
of, political government. The former regards not the present world, 
but looks to a future state. The latter regulates the affairs of time, 
but leaves untouched those of eternity. There is an impassable gulf 
between them — one that mankind can never bridge. When the 
attempt has been made, it has invariably met with a calamitous issue. 

" In Europe, Christianity has been intimately united to the powers 
of the earth. Those powers are now in decay, and it is, as it w T ere, 
buried under their ruins. The living body of religion has been 
bound down to the dead corpse of . superannuated polity. Cut the 
bonds which restrain it, and that which is alive will rise once more."* 

Shall such be the result in our country ? This is the question 
which Americans have to answer, and to answer ere it be too late. 
Let them arise and tell the priestly hierarchies that when they 

* Do Tocqueville. 



A VOICE TO AMERICA. 189 

attempt to subjugate the temporal to the spiritual power, and, by 
means of uncontrolled influence over the minds of their followers, 
peril the peace of the community, hinder the operation of the laws, 
and, by their acts, proclaim the Constitution a dead letter, toleration 
becomes impossible ; for toleration would then be treason to the 
country. 

9* 



THE BIBLE THE CHARTER OF LIBERTY. 

' ' Out from the heart of nature rolled 
The burthens of the Bible old, 
The Litanies of nations came 
Like the volcano's tongue of flame ; 
Up from the burning core below 
The Canticles of Love and Woe." 

Emerson. 

The Bible is the charter of human liberty, and in the teachings 
of that sacred volume are to be found the glad tidings that all men 
are free and equal, not only before each other, but in the sight of 
God. So long as the Scriptures were confined to the few, so long 
as its pages were closed to the multitude, so long the world rested in 
darkness, and oppression existed throughout all lands. From the 
time of the invention of printing, and the consequent circulation of 
the Bible, do we date the commencement of those struggles against 
despotism which finally resulted in the establishment of our free 
government. 

It cannot be controverted, that the Bible was the cause of the 
early revolutions that startled kings from their thrones, and shook 
the foundations of the Vatican. It taught men the rights of the 
citizen, and these led them to examine the claims of rulers. It ques- 
tioned traditions and authorities, and rejected them if not in accord- 
ance with the humble but sublime teachings of Christ. Finding 
that the Creator looked upon all men with equal favor, all laws not 
in conformity with this principle were pronounced unauthorized and 
unjust. The inculcation of the direct confession of sins to the Throne of 
Grace, swept away at a blow the assumptions of priestcraft, and made 
man responsible for his actions to his own conscience and his God. 
Multitudes, who before the reading of the Scriptures were debased, 



192 A VOICE TO AMERICA. 

made self-reliance the prevailing feature of the age. The light that 
poured into the civilized world, overwhelmed society with new views 
and aspirations. Every page of the sacred volume strengthened the 
minds of the reformers, and shed a lustre over the memories of the 
martyrs who had through all time died in defence of liberty. The 
very foundations of society rocked to the centre ; the divine right of 
kings, and the profane assumptions of priests, were scoffed at. 

In England, and on the Continent, the standard of rebellion was 
raised, and thousands, filled with new-born zeal, fearlessly asserted 
the glorious promises of man's regeneration. The triumphs of hu- 
manity, of civilization, and of Christianity, which are the boasts of 
the nineteenth century, would have been unknown, and the pall 
of the dark ages would still be upon us, were it not for the free 
circulation of the Bible. This great truth has always been acknow- 
ledged with the greatest solemnity by our Revolutionary fathers. 
Washington and his compatriots entered upon no serious duties, with- 
out the reading of the Scriptures, and an humble acknowledgment 
of dependence upon Divine "Wisdom for instruction in council, and 
strength in the hour of battle. In all hours of suffering, in the 
darkest days that tried men's souls, it was the encouragement held 
forth in the sacred volume that kept our sires from despondency, 
and strengthened their arms in the noble thought, that their cause 
was sanctioned by the God of battles. The original demands of the 
men, whose sufferings and martyrdom form so large a page in the 
early straggles for human freedom, was, that the Bible might be 
made free, and that its teachings might illume the hearts and con- 
sciences of all men. 

The question, then, comes home seriously to every conscience, Can 
our present form of government exist if the Bible be excluded from 
the public eye \ Are those persons who fear its influence, and do all 
in their power to suppress its circulation, friends to liberty? Are 
those of our citizens who consent to be deprived of the Bible, and 
avoid its pages as if they were possessed of contagion, capable of 
self-government? We can imagine individuals who maybe good 



THE BIBLE THE CHARTER OF LIBERTY. 193 

citizens without the enlightenment of the precepts of the Holy Book, 
but we cannot conceive of a nation prospering without sensibly feel- 
ing and acknowledging their influence. Man is a religious being, 
and upon that immortal principle rests the security of all human 
rights ; he must therefore either have his morals cultivated by his 
own intelligent pursuit of good from the fountain of truth, or he 
must consent to put himself in ecclesiastical servitude, and have his 
conscience controlled by others. 

The American is distinguished from all other people, because he 
thinks for himself, and thus displays the possession of the very 
essence of self-government. He reads the Bible, learns from its 
precepts the distinctions between right and wrong, that all men are 
equal in the sight of Heaven, that he must love his neighbor as him- 
self, and that he alone is responsible to God for his acts. This high 
state of intellectual and moral culture never was obtained in perfec- 
tion except under American institutions, and the accomplishment of 
it was heralded as the greatest triumph of humanity from the bondage 
and oppression of ages. 

Any doctrine, therefore, that teaches the suppression of the Bible, 
must be inimical to liberty — must be treason to the preservation of 
the Republican character ; and whether it is advocated by the avowed 
skeptic, or more dangerously urged under the guise of religion, in 
both cases the pernicious tendency is the same. Infidelity would 
strike at the foundations of all liberty, by destroying the authority 
which sanctifies its existence : religion, falsely so called, would accom- 
plish the same object, on the ground that the individual is not in 
matters of conscience capable of deciding for himself. 

The country has been agitated about the reading of the Scriptures 
in our public schools. The Romish priests have protested against 
such an enormity, and the usefulness of the noblest institution of 
our country has been impaired and imperiled, in the effort to drive 
the book from the teacher's desk. In many cases our American 
populations have yielded to the assumption, that certain American 
children could be injured by hearing its Divine precepts, instead of 



194 A VOICE TO AMERICA. 

taking the position, that children reared in such bigotry were in the 
hands of those who neither sympathized with nor understood our 
institutions; for it is certain beyond contradiction, that those who 
persist in such strange exclusiveness have still lingering in their 
minds a reverence for absolutism not in accordance with universal 
liberty. 

Charles Carroll of Carrollton, a Romanist, and one of the signer of 
the Declaration of Independence, is constantly quoted as an evidence 
of the liberty-loving spirit of his Church. That he was a patriot and 
loved his country there cannot be a doubt ; but when he associated 
himself with Washington, Franklin, Jefferson, and other fathers of 
the Revolution, he surrendered, at the very commencement of his 
political career, the identity of Romanism on the altar of universal 
toleration, else he could not have participated in the stirring and 
glorious scenes enacted around him. Had he retained the spirit, if 
he ever possessed it, that would banish the Bible from the public 
eye, he would have solemnly protested against the reading of the 
Scriptures at the openings of the convention that adopted the Declar- 
ation of Independence, and if it had been persisted in, he would have 
thrown up his seat and his solemn duties, and retired in indignation, 
announcing to the astonished patriots about him, that he was afraid 
to hear that book read in his presence — that in so doing he would be 
disobeying the orders of his ghostly father ; — it was because Charles 
Carroll did not thus act, because he repudiated such control of his 
conscience, that he did sign the immortal Declaration of our Inde- 
pendence, and engraved his name upon a monument that will cause 
it to be remembered with honor as long as virtue is cherished among 
mankind. 

The Council of Trent decrees, " That no Bible shall be held or read 
except by priests — that no Bible shall be sold without a license, ex- 
cept upon the pains and penalties of that mortal sin that is neither 
to be forgiven in this world or the next."* By the priests of the 

* See Father Paul Sarpis' History of the Council of Trent. 



THE BIBLE THE CHARTER OF LIBERTY. 195 

Romish Church it is, therefore, denied to their congregations, and 
innumerable instances have occurred of the Bible being seized and 
publicly burned in this country when found in the possession of 
Romanists. In Europe, in Piedmont and Tuscany, imprisonment and 
persecution are even now meted out for such a crime. 

Some years ago a society termed the Christian Alliance was formed 
in the city of New York, the object of which was to circulate the 
Bible without note or comment, in the prevailing language in differ- 
ent Papal countries. The labors of this society produced the 
greatest consternation at Rome, and in 1844, Gregory, the then 
reigning Pope, fulminated a bull against this association, of which 
we give a single extract : — 

" Moreover, venerable brothers, we recommend the utmost watch- 
fulness over the insidious measures and attempts of the Christian 
Alliance, to those who, raised to the dignity of your order, are called 
to govern the Italian churches, or the countries which Italians fre- 
quent most commonly, especially the frontiers, and parts whence 
travellers enter Italy. As these are the points on which the secta- 
rians have fixed to commence the realization of their projects, it is 
highly necessary that the bishops of those places should mutually 
assist each other zealously and faithfully, in order, with the aid of 
God, to discover and prevent their machinations. 

" Let us not doubt but your exertions, added to our own, will be 
seconded by the civil authorities, and especially by most influential 
sovereigns of Italy, no less by reason of their favorable regard for 
the Papal religion, than that they plainly perceive how much it 
concerns them to prostrate these sectarian combinations. Indeed, it 
is most evident from past experience, that there are no means more 
certain of rendering the people disobedient to their princes than ren- 
dering them indifferent to religion, under the mask of religious 
liberty. The members of the Christian Alliance do not conceal this 
fact from themselves, although they declare that they are far from 
wishing to excite disorder ; but they notwithstanding avow that, once 
liberty of interpretation attained, and with it what they term liberty 



196 A VOICE TO AMERICA. 

of conscience among Italians, these last will naturally soon acquire 
political liberty." 

Here is palpably revealed the natural connection and alliance be- 
tween the political despotism of the Papal See, and the oppressors of 
the people of Europe. The only object of the Christian Alliance was 
to give the Holy Scriptures to the people of Italy. How quick it 
excited the fears of the Pope, how conscious was the prevailing 
power at Rome, that wherever the light and power of that volume 
was admitted, that religious liberty, and rebellion against the assump- 
tions of crafty priests, would follow, that the civil and religious 
despots were the natural enemies of the Bible, and hence was invoked 
the aid of those hated enemies of mankind, the ruling sovereigns, to 
aid in the work of suppressing the sacred volume. 

The last official act known to the world of Gregory XVI. was 
dated May 8th, 1844, in which for the second time he expresses his 
dread of the circulation of the Scriptures. With more elaboration 
than is usual in such documents, the Pope points out all the dreaded 
evils, and renews his orders to his subordinates, to assist each other 
in zealously carrying out his decrees. Among other things his Holi- 
ness says, — 

" Subsequently, when heretics still persisted in their frauds, it be- 
came necessary for Benedict XIV. to superadd the injunction that no 
versions whatever (of the Bible) should be suffered to be read but 
those which should be approved of by the Holy See, accompanied by 
notes derived from the writings of the Holy Fathers, or other learned 
Catholic authors." 

" As for yourselves, my venerable brethren, called as you are to 
divide our solicitude, we recommend you earnestly in the Lord, to 
announce and proclaim, in convenient time and place, to the people 
confided to your care, these apostolical orders, and to labor carefully to 
separate the faithful sheep from contagion of the Christian Alliance, 
from those who have become its auxiliaries, no less than those who 
belong to other Bible societies, and from all who have any communi- 
cation with them. You are consequently enjoined to remove from 



THE BIBLE THE CHARTER OF LIBERTY. 197 

the hands of the faithful alike the Bibles in the vulgar tongue which 
may have been printed contrary to the decrees above mentioned of 
the sovereign Pontiffs, and every book proscribed and condemned, 
and see that they learn, through your admonition and authority, what 
passages are salutary, and what pernicious and mortal. Watch 
attentively over those who are appointed to expound the Holy Scrip- 
tures, to see that they acquit themselves faithfully according to the 
capacity of their hearers, and that they dare not, under any pretext 
whatever, interpret or explain the holy pages contrary to the tradition 
of the Holy Fathers, and to the service of the Catholic Church." 

" Let me know, then, the enormity of the sin against God and his 
Church which they are guilty of who dare associate themselves with 
any of these societies, or abet them in any way. Moreover, we con- 
firm and renew the decrees recited above, delivered in former times by 
apostolic authority, against the publication, distribution, reading, and 
possession of books of the Holy Scriptures translated into the vulgar 
tongue." 

Without commenting upon the spectacle here exhibited, of the 
assumed infallible head of the true Church denying the Holy Scrip- 
tures to the mass of mankind, or attempting in any way to dispute 
the authority for so doing, every true American, whatever may be his 
creed, must ask the question, " Could our peculiar institutions flourish 
under such a system ? and are those persons, in this country or Eu- 
rope, proper citizens for a republic, who will submit to such dicta- 
tion ?" It cannot be disguised, that liberal principles, and the behests 
of the Pope, here meet in eternal opposition. One or the other power 
must give way. On the continent of Europe, wherever Eomanism 
has undisputed sway, the Bible is indeed a proscribed book. In 
many Italian states, and almost under the very shadow of the dome 
of St. Peter's, families are imprisoned for being found with the sacred 
volume in their possession ; delicate women are incarcerated in dun- 
geons, and their husbands and brothers consigned to the lingering 
death of the galleys. 

A few examples of Bible burning have been afforded even in our 



198 A VOICE TO AMERICA. 

glorious country, and "the faithful" Lave quietly yielded up the 
volume, to be consigned by the Jesuit to the flames. Thanks to our 
institutions no civil punishment has followed, but what have been the 
more terrible denunciations of the Priest upon the guilty the world 
will never know. This is the spirit that the American wars against — 
he cannot find it sanctioned by any commendable toleration, because 
it is sanctioning wrong. He cannot believe it to be in accordance 
with any religious sentiment, for the conscience enlightened by reason 
revolts at such tyranny — the question then again recurs, Are indi- 
viduals capable of self-government who will yield up unresistingly, 
and from any plea, or by the dictation of any power, this most sacred 
right of reading, not only the Holy Scriptures, but any book of morals 
that has made its impress upon the world. 

The Sacred Scriptures are not only the Divine revelation of a 
life to come, and the Guide for the life present, but also the great 
Conservator of morals, and the basis of all true social virtue and 
happiness. In the quaint words of Jeremy Taylor, the Bible is " the 
ligature of souls, and the great instrument of the conservation of 
bodies politic." Montesquieu justly observes, that " the principles of 
Christianity deeply engraven in the heart, would be infinitely more 
powerful than the false honor of monarchies, the human virtues of 
republics, or the servile fears of despotic states." We know, and, 
what is better, we feel inwardly that religion is the basis of civil 
society, and the source of all good and of all comfort.* All history 
conclusively proves, that wherever the Bible was p essed by the 
people, virtue and civilization advanced ; — wherever it was not, the 
converse was no less true. A spurious civilization may exist without 
the faith of Christianity, but it is a civilization that opposes no check 
to idolatrous superstition and cruelty, and the most flagrant immoral- 
ities and crin 

Tin- moral effects of the Bible are illustrated in the history of the 
Jewish race; since their superiority over the heathen nations is mainly 

* Burke. 



THE BIBLE THE CHARTER OF LIBERTY. 199 

to be ascribed to their possession of the Divine Oracles. Since the 
introduction of Christianity, the influence of its Divine precepts on 
society is still more marked, in mitigating the horrors of war, in sup- 
pressing the iniquitous and sanguinary rites of heathenism, and the 
gladiatorial combats, which, according to Lipsius, sometimes cost 
Europe from twenty thousand to thirty thousand lives in a month. 

But the influence of the Bible is to be sought for, not so much in 
the councils of princes, as in the debates or resolutions of popular 
assemblies, in the conduct of governments towards their subjects, or 
of states and sovereigns towards one another, of conquerors at the 
head of their armies, or of parties intriguing for power at home 
(topics which almost alone occupy the attention, and fill the pages 
of history), as in the silent course of private and domestic life, and 
in the yet more private regulations of the heart.* Here have ever 
been its great triumphs. The fact of its inculcating self-government 
renders the Bible the great essential in a state where the people are 
invested with the sovereign power. 

The presence of the Divine Oracles sanctified the councils of our 
patriot fathers alike in times of war and peace. It was to the Bible that 
they made their appeal in all emergencies, in the tented field and in 
the legislative hall. It was to this fact that we may ascribe the noble 
testimony of history, which asserts that our Revolutionary struggle 
was unstained by a single crime. It was to the same source that we 
trace the pure patriotism and self-sacrificing heroism and faith of the 
revered founders of our free institutions ; and it is in a like jealous 
regard and cherishing love for the Bible, as our national text-book of 
civil and religious liberty, as well as of Christian faith, that we con- 
fidently rest all our hope for the prosperity and perpetuity of our 
great Republic. Shall we lightly esteem so precious a boon ? Shall 
we ever forget that it comes to us with the sacred insignia of Divinity, 
baptized with the blood of ancient saints and worthies, and all fragrant 
with celestial Truth ? Shall we forget that it has passed through the 

* Paley's Evidences. 



200 VOICE TO AMERICA. 

fires of persecution all unscathed, and that its soul-entrancing truths 
sustained confessors and martyrs who suffered to the death to transmit 
to us, their descendants, the inestimable treasure ? Can we be free, 
we would again ask, if we suffer ourselves to be deprived of the 
Scriptures ? and are those friends of liberty and free institutions who 
would proscribe their circulation among the people ? 



THE PRINCIPLES AND PERILS OF OUR COMMON 
EDUCATION. 

Education is the cheap defence of nations."— Edmcxd Burke. 

The wisest must govern. This truth has been the basis of all the 
governments in the world, from the Patriarchs to the Presidents. It 
is a text upon which a whole circle of sermons has been preached. 
It has supplied the arguments of the absurd monarchist, Filmer ; the 
aristocratical aspirations of Thomas Carlyle ; of the ravings and rev- 
eries of all the red republicans in the world. In the rude times, 
when men were gathered into tribes, the old men, as wisest, ruled the 
band; not very stringently, but with all the authority of the tribe. m 
This primitive mode of governing has descended down, among sav- 
ages, to the Wittenagemote (" witty men's meet," " wise men's meet- 
ing") of the Saxons, and to our Indian contemporaries. 

Monarchs, whether autocratic or constitutional, usurping or heredi- 
tary, have asserted the same principle. Great rulers, such as Julius 
Cscsar, Oliver Cromwell, and Napoleon Bonaparte, who grasped su- 
preme power because they knew they could use it ; and petty tyrants, 
who abused it because the people were supine and ignorant, have 
asserted the same claim — the right of the wisest to govern. 

The feudal governments of Europe are set on a like foundation. 
The wealthy and (so-called) noble aristocracy — whose power, and 
whose intention to keep it, are alike and almost equally represented 
by Alexander the Autocrat, and Victoria the constitutional Queen — 
make appeal to this principle in their very name. An "Aristocracy" 
is, literally, a Best Government — a Government by the Wisest. 



202 A VOICE TO AMERICA. 

Not that these rulers have always deliberately claimed that they, 
individually, were wisest among men ; but they have done it for them- 
selves as officers, in their formal documents. They say, " In our wis- 
dom ;" and, " Of our free grace and mere motion," and such things. 
These forms at least defer to the common consent of mankind that 
the wisest ought to govern, by taking the name of wisdom ; just as 
vice acknowledges the supremacy ofVirtue, by pretending to be virtue. 
Republics — Greek, Italian, Swiss, German, French, American— have 
alike proclaimed the same universal maxim, with so loud a voice that 
we need not stop to repeat their words. 

The only difference amongst all these different rulers has been in 
their answers to the question, "Who are the wisest \ The king, the 
emperor, the holy czar — say the monarchists. The king and his 
nobles — sa y the feudalists. The nobles, said the oligarchic Venetians. 
The people said, and still say — The people. So say we. But pre- 
cisely at this point is a common and enormous omission. "The 
people ought to govern," is the loud cry of all our politicians. But 
there can be no reason whi/ they ought to govern, unless that they 
are wisest — because they are wise enough to govern. It is with the 
nation as it is with the individual. When a man is old enough, 
knows enough, to take care of himself, then he may take care of 
himself. Until that time, he is under more or less restraint And a 
nation not wise enough to govern itself, will as surely work out its 
own destruction, as an inexperienced boy in the sole charge of a 
great estate would unwisely waste and lose it. 

Our politicians happen in fact to be right. But that is only because 
our people have been wise enough to govern. The presumption has 
always been, that each voter has been intelligent enough and upright 
enough to be intrusted with the power. The exceptions have been 
so few as to serve only to prove the rule. But of late years, the 
exceptions have increased so rapidly, especially by immigration of 
ignorant and immoral foreigners, that this presumption of intelli- 
gence can hardly any longer be said to exist The politicians con- 
tinue to cry, "Let the people govern !" But the trouble is not now 



PRINCIPLES OF OUR COMMON EDUCATION. 203 

lest the people shall govern. That they will always do. They will 
never, in this country, suffer the sceptre to pass out of their hauds. 
But the trouble now is, to keep them wise enough to govern well. 
They are not in the case of the boy who is not old enough to manage 
his estate ; but they are in the case of the man who is in danger of 
ruining his estate by falling into evil courses. 

The American Republican theory is not merely that the people 
should govern; it is, first, that the people are the wisest; and second, 
and only by virtue of this wisdom, comes the other truth which we 
hear so often, The people must govern. 

For abundant proof of our position, let us look to the practice and 
'precepts of those founders of the Union and fathers of American lib- 
erty — the first settlers of the thirteen colonies. In the early times of 
the various colonial commonwealths, only members of churches were 
admitted, in some of them, to the exercise of the electoral franchise, 
for the declared reason that the body of the people ought to cqnsist 
of honest and good men. Decent and reputable conduct as members 
of society was also a recognized requisite of those admitted to vote. 
The written constitutions, and the whole spirit of the frame of gov- 
ernment of all the early colonies, is conclusively in point. The 
strong, clear-minded men who established them, saw plainly the abso- 
lute necessity of admitting none to the freeman's privilege of govern- 
ing the State, except such as were duly qualified in intellect and 
morals for that high responsibility. They set their standard of quali- 
fication higher than would now be endured. They required, until 
public sentiment compelled a change, both the ownership of prop- 
erty, that the voter might the more sensibly feel the effects of his 
own governing, and church-membership, that he might be approved 
a man of pure heart and life, and as one not about to endanger their 
peculiar semi-theocratic institutions. That their application of the 
principle was extreme and mistaken, may be allowed ; but the demon- 
stration is not less conclusive, but rather more so, of the strength and 
clearness of their conviction that only safe men — well-qualified men — 
should conduct the affairs of the State. 



204 A VOICE TO AMERICA. 

Since this is our theory, and has been our practice, as it ought to 
be, is in some measure, and as we hope it will be again, evidently it 
is the very profoundest and most absolute necessity of the State, if it 
desires to be a righteous, prosperous, and happy State, to foresee its 
future, and to secure to itself the -means of a prosperous and progres- 
sive life, by raising up well-trained citizens for the next generation. 
The nation, during one generation, must prepare the next ; just as a 
provident man of business during one season is making arrange- 
ments for his investments and enterprises during the next ; or as a 
farmer, while cultivating one crop, makes that crop help prepare for 
the next, and thus preserves and improves the value and productive 
power of his land. 

The children of the present age are the nation of the future, and 
properly educating them for wise and right action as men, is not only 
the very greatest responsibility of our adult generation, but it is also 
a necessity as plain and indispensable as that a man should preserve 
his life now, in order to be alive next year. The training of the 
children is the whole basis of our republic ; the one thing needful, 
without which all our other pains and trouble for perpetuating our^ 
Union must come to naught ; the primary source and condition of 
all that is desirable in our peculiar national life, if any such we 
have. 

The American common-school education is the essential condition 
of all that is valuable in our American citizenship and polity. It 
is consistent with them ; a part of the same machine — as one par- 
ticular wheel is of its own engine, and of no other. It differs from 
ot^er common-school educations, precisely as our people differ from 
other people, and our institutions from other institutions. Ameri- 
can school education, as fostered aud enforced by our government, is 
intended to train citizens fit to uphold our State; men wise enough 
to govern. They must be intelligent; possessed of minds free, active, 
stored with the fundamentals of knowledge, and with as much as 
possible of the superstructure. Yet they must be so trained, morally 
and religiously, as to keep their intellects and their passions subject 



PRINCIPLES OF OUR COMMON EDUCATION. 205 

to their regard for right, Christianity, and the law.* They need the 
widest freedom, that they may manage and discuss their political 
business with the confident courage which distinguished the founders 
of the republic. They need the utmost wisdom, that they may make 
few mistakes themselves, and may profit by the examples of others. 
They need the most thorough and deeply-founded conviction of the 
supremacy of God and the sanctity of His great laws, and of the 
moral and human laws based thereon, in order that they may not 
pass from freedom to riot ; that their own stability as law-abiding, 
honest, and upright citizens may be sufficient to guard and guide 
them in the wide freedom of our constitution, and to bring them to 
the strenuous support of that constitution wheii attacked or violated 
by the ignorant or the wicked. 

That such is the true relation of our common-school training to the 
State, seems proved by the mere statement of the case. That such 
w T as in fact its scope and purpose, and that they bave ever been so 
regarded by our wisest men, needs little proof. The histories of the 
early settlements, and the documentary evidence of their records, are 
alike conclusive of the question. The fact is notorious, that the edu- 
cation of the young engaged a very large share of the solicitude of 
the first Americans. The Virginians established, in 1621, the first free 
school in America. The first in Boston was set up in 1635. 

It is repeatedly declared in the records of the colonies, that it is the 
legal duty of all parents and guardians to give religious and other 
instruction to the children under their care, and to train them up in 
some learned profession or other employment profitable for themselves 
and the commonwealth. In 1642, it was declared, by solemn enact- 
ment, that all children must be educated, and that it was "barbarism" 
not to have a knowledge of the principal laws of the State. 

Indeed, recognition of the absolute and fundamental importance 
of education, enforced and paid for by the State, raising the scholar 
to that standard of moral and intellectual ability and acquirement 

* For relation of Christianity to the State, see Girard will case. Also, Web- 
ster's Works, Vol. VL p. 133, &c. 

10 



206 A VOICE TO AMERICA. 

which prepare him for safe and reliable citizenship, are conclusively 
evident in the earliest legislative records of the New England States, 
The same solemn recognition is embodied, in one form or another, 
in all the State constitutions, from Maine to California, at this day. 
A monument of the same belief also remains, in the power which 
lias from the beginning been granted to the selectmen, of appren- 
ticing, for labor and education, all children neglected by their parents 
or guardians. This regulation has, most unfortunately, fallen into 
very general disuse ; but its importance and meaning are none the 
less evidi 

Such is our American idea of common education : a careful and 
thorough training for all purposes of government and self-govern- 
ment. A comparison with it of the character of European education, 
and of its results upon the population subjected to it, will serve to 
exhibit contrasts seldom considered, but extremely important. 

The greatest difference between the two systems arises from the 
difference in their objects. Americans are free, and the freedom of 
our American law must be made up for by a corresponding increase 
in the exercise of self-control by the individual. Therefore, it is a. 
principal and direct object of our education, to train our youth to 
independent and careful fraught. They think on public business, 
and manage public business — an employment which demands the 
widest intelligence. They arc trained to feel it not only a privil 
bui a duty, to take a direct and active interest in the government of 
their country. 

But it is an equally direct object of the European educational 
ms — m cially of the Continental, but measurably also of 

the English system — to prevent the people from examining the gov- 
ernment or iis measures, or from concerning themselves at all with 
them. The Prussian school-system — the most liberal on the Conti- 
nent — h. been found too liberal for the pur] the 
Government, and has gradually shorn of its besl features, until 
now it is, like all the rest, merely an adjunct of despotic power; a 
great machine, from which are turned out ready-made subjects — not 



PRINCIPLES OF OUR COMMON EDUCATION. 207 

ready-made men.' The reading-books of the schools of the Austrian 
dominions are arranged to teach submission to tyranny. In them 
the children read, in so many words, that subjects must behave 
towards their sovereign like faithful slaves towards their master, be- 
cause their sovereign is their master, and has power over their prop- 
erty as well as over their lives. Intelligent consideration of political 
matters, or any consideration of them, would shake the seats of the 
kings ; and for self-preservation's sake, therefore, they carefully keep 
such matter of investigation as much as possible out of the peo- 
ple's hands. More than that : lest they acquire too free a habit of 
thought elsewhere, they not only prohibit a direct training for the 
duty and habit of governing, but they prevent the study in a free 
manner of any thing else. Lest scholars should learn the intelligent 
study of politics, they are prevented from the intelligent study of any 
thing. They are not taught to think for themselves for their own 
good, but only to believe what is taught them, in order to subserve 
the bad purposes of others. Intellectual debasement always brings 
moral and social debasement along with it. The victims of this edu- 
cation for ignorance are not only miserably besotted m mind, but 
brutishly savage and heathenish in manners. Their whole character 
is the natural consequence of such training in youth. Mutual confi- 
dence and helpfulness, the reliance of our citizens upon the kindness 
and honesty of others, the social friendship and good fellowship which 
are the very texture of so much of our daily life, are things unknown 
in Europe, and strange and incomprehensible to Europeans travelling 
here. 

In Europe, everybody distrusts everybody. It was a principal 
reason for the transitory insecurity of the many constitutional govern- 
ments established in Germany and elsewhere, in the years 1848-50, 
that, of the numerous little cliques of politicians and theorists who 
were at work, none trusted any other ; nor did any man trust his 
fellow. There is none of that feeling which causes our minorities 
to submit peacefully to the measures of the majority, and even to 
assist, in good faith, their support and full accomplishment. A Eu- 



208 A VOICE TO AMERICA. 

ropean nation would almost necessarily pass from- the excitement of 
our Presidential election-, into an armed revolution. The eagerness 
with which the Irish and Germans gather into exclusively national 
armed bands in this country, their promptness in rising into mobs, 
their brutal tights among themselves, are plain indications of the pas- 
sions which boil in their minds, wry near to overflowing. 
Thus far it has been shown : 

1. How our peculiar American education is the basis of our pecu- 
liar American nationality and freedom. 

2. How the aims of American education and European education 
are diametrically opposite. 

It remains to consider:' 

1 . What the actual influence of foreign population is upon our 
schools ; and, 

2. What measures are needed to secure our schools in their proper 
condition. 

1. The actual influence of foreign population upon our schools. 

Considering the character of most European training, and its influ- 
• upon the minds of its victims; considering also their besotted 
subservience to their Romish priests, or else the rampant infidelity and 
lawless, riotous, and licentious tendencies of those not so subservient, 
it is easy to see how little community of thought and feeling can sub- 
sisl between the two classes of people, European and American. The 
Europeans are studiously kept ignorant and servile, and are deformed 
with the vices which accompany servile ignorance. They are bigoted, 
false, selfish, cunning, and revengeful. They are governed by fear ; 
and, like passionate children, they seize every occasion to violate laws 
which are only kept over them by force, and to indulge the passions 
which are only subdued by terror. Il«>w can such men coalesce with 
our law-making, law-abiding, and self-controlling men \ Our laws are 
so free that only Buch men as ours can properly use or safely endure 
their freedom. Our thoughtful people see thai their own self-con- 
trol must make up for the ab stringenl laws,a standing army, 
and the heavy pressure from above of despotism and an armed and 



PRINCIPLES OF OUR COMMON EDUCATION. 209 

disciplined aristocracy. Liberal laws, and a correspondingly careful 
self-government by the individual, are the distinguishing dignity and 
prerogative of our freemen. But the very freedom which we use to 
increase our moral power of governing ourselves, the foreigner seizes 
as an opportunity to indulge his ingrained antipathy to law, his fero- 
city, and his appetites. Our population is so intelligent as to recognize 
the necessity of a universal Christian and democratic education, with- 
out regard to sects. The foreigner, under the control of Romish 
priests, regards it even as his duty, to insist upon the exclusive propa- 
gation, in all schools where he can secure it, of his special sectarian- 
ism, or his own atheism, if he has renounced the Romish Church. 

The character of the actual educational operations of our foreign 
population has, in fact, been precisely such as we have shown that it 
must be. In Detroit, in Cincinnati, in New York city — wherever they 
could muster strength enough to hope for success — they have begged, 
bargained, and bullied to get their hands upon the money of the 
State, for the propagation of their religious dogmas. Failing in that, 
they have, by the like means, attempted to destroy in our national 
schools their national significance and value, by driving out from 
them all religious instruction or influence. The demands of the athe- 
istical Germans have been of a similar character. More than one 
meeting of these people has formally resolved that the legal enforce- 
ment of the observance of the Christian Sabbath, and the giving of 
any religious instruction in schools, ought to cease ; and with besotted 
blindness, while making these absurd demands, they have also called 
upon the Government to provide everybody with property and labor. 
This is a like treachery with that of those villains who ask a night's 
lodo-ino- and then set fire to the house, for the sake of plunder. 

The liberal grants by the British government to the College of 
Mavnooth, while they have had no effect in mollifying the -Irish 
priests' opposition to popular education in Ireland, have acted as a 
stimulus to the preparation of Jesuit priests for this country, who, 
headed by Bishop Hughes and his confederates, are, as we all know, 
constantly interfering with the operation of our school-system, and 



210 A VOICE TO AMERICA. 

endeavoring, under the plea of religious scruples, to secularize them 
and destroy their usefulness. We also suffer from the outside influ- 
ence of Austria, where, in 1829, was instituted " the Leopold Founda- 
tion," the direct object of which was to supply money for the sup] 
of foreign teachers for American children. From this propagandist 
society have been received the immense sums of money that have 
been paid for Romanist teachers, and for schoolhouses, in communities 
entirely Protestant ; and to Austria we must look for the solution of 
the oft-repeated question among our Protestant rural populations, 
" How do the Romanists manage to get funds to pay for their build- 
ings and support their priests ?" 

What the result of the success of this speckled army of disorgan- 
izers and bigots w^ould be, it requires no prophet to foretell. Every 
professedly religious body, w T ould grasp at the State funds with the 
intensely bitter, selfish, and spiteful rivalry of sectarian quarrelers. 
The strongest would snatch the most, and would try to secure all. 
American free common-school education — that invaluable institution 
which has been, and is, the life-blood of the Union, the nucleus and 
source of all our liberty and all our happiness — would be bandied 
about, like a bone in a pack of snarling curs. The keystone of the 
State would be knocked out of the arch ; and the solid architecture 
of the iron men who founded our commonwealth would be demol- 
ished, t<» make room for the crude fancies and foggy dreams of infi- 
del German metaphysicians — the most visionary and unpractical of 
nioi — or for the cunning machineries of a subtle priesthood, striving 
to rear the Inquisition and convents of the Romish Church on the 
ruins of our State. At the very best, our young men and young wo- 
men would have passed the forming years v'i their lives in a disci- 
pline calculated to develop intellect, but to smother morals and reli- 
gion together. All the strength of our republic would be sapped. 
Like the image in Nebuchadnezzar's dream, whose feel were part vt 
iron and part of clay, we Bhould totter upon a failing and incongruous 
basis. The first stone thrown at us, would prostrate our country in 
irremediable ruin. 



PRINCIPLES OF OUR COMMON EDUCATION. 211 

2. What measures are needed in order to preserve our schools in 
their proper condition ? 

Only the religious belief underlying and interweaving all the 
thoughts and habits of our people, co-operating with intellectual ele- 
vation and habits politically discreet, have held us together hitherto. 
The elements of disunion are to-day fermenting nlore deeply and dan- 
gerously than ever. Questions of policy, and of sectional prejudice, 
have agitated the nation quite enough for its health. If these ques- 
tions are to be determined without any other judges than cunnino- 
intellect and unbridled passion, the death of our Union is at hand. 
If they are to be determined by men believing and seeking to prac- 
tice right and justice, the Union may yet endure. But if they are 
to be so determined, it can be in no other way than by the graduates 
of our common schools, brought up under an education based upon 
Christianity, and teaching freedom of body, heart, and mind, democ- 
racy, and, above all, Christianity, without sectarianism. 

There is no doubt what is necessary for the security of our edu- 
cation and of our country. It is high time that the distinctive 
Christianity of our State polity, and the Christian and political char- 
acter of our public-school education, were re-established and restored 
to their former footing, there to be maintained. Trial by jury is an 
excellent custom. Taxation according to representation is a very true 
principle. Popular election and the ballot-box are the best possible 
mode of choosing rulers. But neither custom, principle, nor ma- 
chinery will help a rotten nation. Unless we are able to handle our 
instruments, we shall turn out but a bungling piece of work. These 
good things are only good by virtue of skill in the hands of the user. 
Unless we know how to use our blessings well, we shall turn them 
into curses. Our common schools are the only medium of the requi- 
site education. These must be kept American in spirit, American in 
practice, American thoroughly, everywhere and always. The fanat- 
ics or the fools who would destroy our liberties by ousting from our 
schools the sources and preservatives of those liberties, with a wisdom 
like that of a man w T ho should burn his own home over his head to 



212 A VOICE TO AMERICA. 

warm his fingers, must be rebuked and silenced. Our schools must 
remain public, free, democratic, unsectarian, and Christian. There is 
room for no hesitation about the matter; the case is urgent. As 
surely as we trifle with this blind giant, Ignorance, he will repay us 
with such a destruction as Sampson brought upon the Philistines. 
He is even now feeling about to grip the pillars of our State. Hav- 
ing them once in his grasp, he will overthrow our national edifice, 
and crush us among the falling fragments. 

Perhaps the most significant, comprehensive, and useful measure 
which could be taken in order to the accomplishment of the purposes" 
set forth in this chapter, would be an educational qualification for 
voting, — the requirement that every voter should read intelligibly, in 
English, our State and National Constitutions. This single require- 
ment, of reading, is probably the best, although, of course, very im- 
perfect, as all such tests must be. Any such test must be capable 
of quick and easy application, and must also determine the possession 
of an essential requisite. Reading is a ready mode of estimating a 
man's literary acquirements. A more elaborate inquiry would be so 
tedious in the application, as to be practically inconvenient. Ability 
to read can be proved in a moment. And one who can read, is able 
to use the most extensive and important source of information in the 
world, namely, printed matter. 

The enforcement of such a rule would be attended with mam- 
ad vantages. It would shut out from the polls the most degraded 
and dangerous class of voters, native or foreign. The men who are 
most easily bought or fooled would not then be worth buying. Im- 
migrants would be under a strong temptation to learn English, and 
to learn to read ; of which two attainments the first would be ot' great 
value in assimilating them to our own people, and the second as a 
main step forward in their progress towards intelligent freedom. A 
most important benefit, also, to be derived from the operation of this 
educational test, would be its effeel upon our* schools. The children 
of foreigners, n<>\v the most ignorant and inaccessible of our youthful 
population, would at least learn to read. Their fathers would also 



PRINCIPLES OF OUR COMMON EDUCATION. 213 

learn, in order to vote ; and as much as they learned themselves, so 
much it is safe to conclude that their children would be greatly 
benefited. Education, moreover, would thus once more be definitely 
recognized and significantly honored by the State ; and the posses- 
sion and exercise of political power would once more be publicly 
declared conditional upon the possession of the ability to use such 
power. The declaration would not be very perfect ; the test proposed 
is not. But probably it is the best that circumstances will admit of. 
Its adoption would, at least, make a renewed and important public 
assertion of our hereditary State policy, namely, the restriction of the 
governing power to those fit to use it. 

The principle of demanding that religion, though free from secta- 
rianism, should be carefully excluded from our common-schools, is 
not of American origin. " Education, without religion," says a great 
authority, " merely transforms an ignorant brute into a clever fiend." 
True relioious feeling is the basis of all useful education. It is the 
wholesome check upon that power which man acquires through the 
acquisition of knowledge. " Knowledge is power, but it is neither 
wisdom nor virtue ;"* and these two qualities, so necessary to the very 
existence of society, can only be implanted by religious faith. The 
prevalence of the Epicurean philosophy did much to destroy the 
Roman Empire ; and, in later years, the teachings of Voltaire and 
Rousseau removed the only check which restrained the French nation 
from those frightful excesses which form so dark a picture in the his- 
tory of mankind. The " Goddess of Reason" has ever been insuffi- 
cient to direct either individuals or multitudes; and the first step 
towards the restoration of order in France, was the i«cognition of the 
Divine power in the government of the world. 

As the cherished sentiments of thousands of our naturalized and 
alien citizens become known to the American people, it is discovered 
that we not only have the Romish priest, industriously at work to 
suppress the Scriptures, but that we have organized societies of 
avowed infidels and atheists, who openly proclaim that there is no 

* Alison. 



214 A VOICE TO AMERICA. 

liberty where even moral, much less religious, restraints prevail, and 
that the perfection of society is accomplished, when the unregenerated 
passions of the heart alone control human action.* 

The experience of other nations presents warnings to the American, 
of the necessity of constantly insisting upon the moral training of our 
youth. We want no dogmas, no "isms," but we want the Scriptures 
free. That they might be so, our forefathers made a home in the 
wilderness, and left the heritage to the present generation. Shall we, 
in the prosecution of our school-system, allow it to be emasculated of 
its chief strength, because of the demands of the priests of a cor- 
rupted religion, or because we are required to do so by foreigners 
who openly declare war upon religion itself \ It is for the Americans 
who truly love their country to decide. 

* See published statements of the principles of various German Societies 
throughout the Union. 



♦ 



THE POLITICAL POWER OF THE POPE. 

"The Romish Church hasaiways ranged herself on the side of Despotism."— Guizot 

It has lately become the fashion for party men and journalists to 
assert that the influence of the Papal See on political affairs no longer 
exists ; that history proves her power to have been on the . wane 
during many past years ; that the march of intellect and spread of 
education have forced her to relinquish coercive power ; and that the 
resumption of her former influence is impossible. We are constantly 
told by prelates, priests, and politicians, that the supremacy of the 
Pope in temporal affairs " is not an established doctrine of the Roman 
Church ; it is simply a sententia in ccclesia — an unadjudicated ques- 
tion, without positive authority, and incumbent upon no one's faith ; 
that a Romanist may believe what he pleases on the subject, and 
be a good Churchman still." Those, on the contrary, who, relying 
on the authority of the Fathers of that Church, receiving the declara- 
tions of the priesthood themselves, and accepting the exj^lanation of 
the Roman press, maintain a different opinion, are accused of bigotry 
and intolerance, or stigmatized as enemies to liberty. It becomes us, 
therefore, to examine these pretensions, and, having seen their import 
in other ages, to inquire if they have been relinquished, or, as is 
strenuously urged, become obsolete. 

In order to a full appreciation of this momentous question, a glance 
at the origin and progress of Papal assumption is necessary, so that 
a full idea of the arrogance of Rome may be realized. 

Systems which are longest in their growth, are most lasting in 
their effects. This is peculiarly the case with that politico-religious 
organization — Romanism : commencing in the first centuries of the 



216 A VOICE TO AMERICA. 

Christian era — a period when the whole known world was in a state 
of transition — it has steadily progressed from infancy to robust man- 
hood : accurately observing cause and effect, it quickly learnt to con- 
trol events, and mould men and monarchies to its will. What was 
originally conferred as a favor, it quickly arrogated as a right ; and, 
when princes remonstrated, or jurists denied its claims, forgery was 
resorted to in defence of its usurpations, and absolution and prefer- 
ment were the rewards of assassins who removed its opponents. 

In the struggle between the Eastern and Western Empires, the 
See of Rome early rejected the Byzantine yoke, thus asserting a right 
to resist governments. In becoming temporal princes, the Popes de- 
clared that a union could exist between the temporal and spiritual; 
and, at the election of Pepin to the throne of France, arrogated the 
•power of umpires in political disputes. Thus, gradually establishing 
authority by precedent, the Papacy matured its policy, until Ililde- 
brand placed a climax on the growth of six centuries.* 

This famous Pontiff is regarded by all historians as the master 
mind of his age, and the architect of the Romish Church. His great 
antagonist, Henry IV., Emperor of Germany, found the armies of the 
empire powerless against the Eternal City, and was compelled to 
listen to the Pope as he fulminated interdicts against his kingdom, 
and excommunication against himself. Nor did the Papal emissaries 
confine their operations merely to Germany. In England, they im- 
' posed and collect, d taxes without the consent of the authorities, and 
frequently raised insurrections by their extortions. So extravagant 
became their demands in France, that the civil power was forced to 
interfere, and St. Louis decreed the "Pragmatic Sanction," curbing 
the power of the Papacy in his kingdom. In fact, monarchy was in 
rebellion, and what could not be acquired by force, Rome resolved 
to gain by wiles. 

The thirteenth century saw the struggle commence between the 
people and Feudalism. Bui the Papacy early understood that Lib- 
erty would be death to its pretensions, and therefore allied itself with 

* Gregory VII., A. D. 1070. 



POLITICAL POWER OF THE POPE. 217 

Tyranny. The Barons, who had extorted Magna Charta from 
John, were excommunicated by the Pope, and a war of extermina- 
tion commenced against the Albigenses. This people, in the enjoy- 
ment of political and religious freedom, were under the protection of 
the Count of Toulouse, who, on his refusal to abet the designs of 
the Papacy, was excommunicated, and his destruction resolved 
upon. 

Every expedient was resorted to in order to detach their protectors 
from this unfortunate people ; and the Pope showed the policy of 
Rome towards her opponents, in the following memorable words : 

" We advise you, according to the precepts of the Apostle Paul, 
to use cunning in your dealings with the Count, which, in the pres- 
ent case, should rather be deemed prudence. It is expedient to at- 
tack those separately who have broken the unity of the Church ; to 
spare the Count of Thoulouse for a season, treating him with wise 
dissimulation, in order that the other heretics may be more easily 
destroyed, and that we may crush him at our leisure when he stands 
alone/'* 

But treachery was not the only weapon which Romanism found 
useful to adopt. Henry VIL, Emperor of Germany, was assassinated 
by order of Pope Clement V., poison being administered to him in 
the Eucharist, from the hands of his Dominican confessor. But 
crimes become virtues in a creed which asserts the maxim — " The 
end justifies the means." 

Religion has always given place to policy when Romanism has 
been forced to an alternative. The Duke of Guise was assassinated 
by order of his sovereign ; yet, notwithstanding his opposition to the 
Huguenots of France, and his being the leader of the Romanist party, 
the Pope justified the assassination on the ground of political expe- 
diency. But the most memorable instance of Papal duplicity is 
shown in the treatment of Philip II. of Spain, one of the greatest sup- 
porters of the Romish See that history can produce. Rome, how- 
ever, feared his power, and secretly sought the alliance of Elizabeth 

* Pope Innscent III. to the Abbot of Citeaux. 



218 A VOICE TO AMERICA. 

of England, advising her to assist the insurgents against Philip's 
authority in the Netherlands. When this sovereign had resolved on 
war with England, the Pope sent information to Elizabeth of the plan 
forming for her destruction, together with copies of letters he had 
received from the king relative to the Armada. The whole history 
of the Papacy is full of such instances as these ; and neither suc- 
ceeding centuries nor the progress of civilization have produced a 
chano-e. 

The history of Westphalia, in 1649, was the triumph of Protest- 
antism and free opinions. The Papacy then ceased to have any 
direct political influence in the affairs, of Europe ; henceforward it 
was no longer to maintain authority by the aid of arms and the civil 
power ; but to struggle for present existence and prospective influence 
by craft and cunning. It may be said of this system — 

" It was not for an age, but for all time." 

Romanism has weapons suited to every cycle. It adapts itself to 
every people ; it conforms to and supports every government ; but in 
despotism, monarchy, and republicanism, its aim is still unchanged. 
Tyrannizing in barbarism, fawning in the sixteenth century, intriguing 
in the nineteenth. Tolerant where forced, it persecutes where possi- 
ble. Liberal in England and America, autocratic in Spain and Aus- 
tria. Truly, "tout chemin mene a Rome."* 

The weapons which the Papal hierarchy now wields in free coun- 
tries, are admirably suited to the organization of its ministers. Celi- 
bacy of the priesthood gave power to the Papacy, and maintains its 
influence. Family and country have no ties on the Romish clergy, 
and the Popes have always been convinced that celibacy is the great 
bond which unites all portions of the Papal dominions. Rome there- 
fore enjoys exclusive possession of every feeling which can render her 
ministers good subjects or good citizens. Tins IV. comprehended the 
immense value of an unmarried clergy. Though he violently con- 
demned the administration of the eucharist in both kinds, ho relaxed 
* " Every road leads to Eome." 



POLITICAL POWER OF THE POPE. 219 

the prohibition, at the instance of. the Emperor Maximilian, and per- 
mitted the cup to be given to the laity in Germany. But on the 
point of celibacy he was inflexible; for he was justly convinced that 
it was the great bond by which all the portions of Papal domination 
were united, and that, if it should be relaxed, the entire edifice would 
fall in sunder. 

A very necessary element of success, is the command of funds; 
and here the Romish Church is aided by the celibacy of her priest- 
hood. " The clergy is a family which can never perish ; its wealth 
therefore remains with it forever ; and, as it is not a family to increase, 
government should restrict its power of acquiring additional wealth." 
(Montesquieu.) Rome shows her appreciation of such restrictions, 
by treating them as sacrilege ; and governments, in asserting their 
independence of Papal tyranny, have found it necessary to first curb 
its financiering proclivities. A government which neglects legislative 
enactments on so momentous a subject, will eventually find the Romish 
Church capable of any resistance, and bidding defiance to the laws. 

We are at a loss to understand how men, otherwise far-seeing, can 
speak of Rome as powerless for evil. Are any of her means of action 
restrained ? Is she less wealthy? ' Are her followers materially dimin- 
ished, or less devoted ? Is her alliance with governments perilled ? 
Or has she become meek and lowly, and forgotten her former arro- 
gance ? In every country we see her bishops and priests leading a 
strong party, whose alliance is sought, and opinions pandered to, by 
rjarty-men of different shades of opinion. In England, the Popish 
Parliamentary league is feared and hated by every ministry. In 
France, their alliance is gained by the government, in return for 
almost supreme ecclesiastical power. In Germany, Rome educates 
in the schools, and Jesuits bear sway in the cabinet. She attempts 
to arrest the march of freedom in Sardinia, and strives to stifle its 
rise in Spain. Is it egotism which induces Americans to deny her 
influence in this republic, and are they blind to passing events in 
their own country ? "What, then, is the explanation of demagogues 
flattering the Papal hierarchy ; what the meaning of the riots of our 



220 A VOICE TO AMEEICA. 

foreign population ; and for what purpose is so much property in the 
hands of the priesthood, and in their hands alone \ The fact is obvi- 
ous, that the means Rome formerly possessed, she has not parted with. 
She is as powerful for evil as in the days of Innocent III.; and, when 
the situation warrants it, she will know where to find another Hilde- 
brand. 

We are not alone in this conviction. The historian, Macaulay, 
holds the same opinion, in the following language : 

" The Papacy remains — not in decay, not a mere antique, but full 
of life and youthful vigor. The Catholic Church is still sending forth 
to the furtherest ends of the world, missionaries as zealous as those 
who landed in Kent with Augustin ; and still confronting hostile 
kings with the same spirit with which she confronted Attila." 

There is a fundamental mistake made by would-be philosophers of 
the present day, which may lead to very disastrous consequences. 
Viewing the want of education in Romanist countries, and the uniu- 
tellectual character of their inhabitants,- they imagine the Papal 
priests to be participators in this ignorance, whereas the contrary is 
the case. The Romish priests, as a body, are educated, scientific, and 
refined. They number men among them eminent in every branch 
of literature, and especially in political philosophy. This fact is one 
which should cause them t<> be regarded with greater fear, since they 
are prepared beforehand for every emergency. Their education is 
instilled into them with, and becomes a part of, one great controlling 
aim — the supremacy of their order. 

Rome formerly worked by what may be termed physical mean-. 
She was a species of equipoise — a political umpire between contend- 
ing gbvernments. But this influence has departed, and Rome adapts 
herself to the age. She educates her ministers to meet the times; 
and her followers are trained to make every action of their lives, 
every phase of their existence, subservienl to a fixed policy. Seated 
in the midst of the civilized world, accurately marking every change 
of the political horizon, Rome awaits her moment, and, when the 
success of one or other political party is wavering in the balance. 



POLITICAL POWEE OF THE POPE. 221 

she throws in the immense weight of her followers, and bears down 
all opposition. Politicians laugh at our fears, and deride our asser- 
tions ; yet these same men are courting that party whose influence 
they deny. Why is it that public men are so courteous to, and 
apologistic of, the^tiomish Church ? It is because they know it to be 
an undivided power, — no two policies there, no factions, no North 
and South, but a party one and indivisible. Whigs and Democrats 
may contend, " isms" may come in contact, and a " National party" 
be rent by fanatics, but Rome is unchangeable. There are no divisions 
there ; she commands, and countless thousands obey. No wonder, 
then, our public men are so deferential to such a power, though at 
the same time denying its existence to the country. Will America 
thus be treated by her representatives ? 

The oft-repeated assertion of the Papal See not claiming temporal 
supremacy, is one calculated to bring about the most disastrous results. 
Legislators in this, as in other countries, are unceasing in the propa- 
o-ation of this error ; and even Romanists themselves assert a doctrine 
which is entirely opposed to the spirit and affirmation of their hie- 
rarchy. From the ninth century to the nineteenth — from Gregory VII. 
to Pius IX.- — the doctrine of that Church has been, the elevation of 
the spiritual over the secular. This right is not asserted as a conse- 
quence of the spiritual power, but as of divine origin. Thus Hilde- 
brand, in excommunicating Henry IV., uses the language, u Ex parte 
omnipotcntis Dei." The same Pontiff asserts that " kings and princes 
are bound to kiss the feet of God's vicegerent. He has a right to 
depose emperors. His sentence can be annulled by none, but he 
can annul the decrees of all." Successive Pontiffs were unceasing in 
maintaining this doctrine, and constantly asserted that governments 
held their authority from the Romish See. Pope Boniface VIII. 
addresses Philip le Bel of France in the same arrogant language : 
" We would have thee to know that in things spiritual and temporal, 
thou art subject to us." In fact, throughout the whole range of the 
Papacy, from Hildebrand downwards, such has been the declaration 
of the so-called successors of St. Peter. 



222 A VOICE TO AMERICA. 

In A.D. 1414, the Council of Constance declares : "The laity have 
no jurisdiction and power over the clergy." And the Council of 
Trent, in 1545, asserts: "The exemption of clerical persons has been 
instituted by the ordination of God, and by canonical institutions." 
(Sess. 25, chap. 20.) • 

It was in the early ages of the Papacy that Rome found her most 
critical moments ; and such decrees as the above were necessaiy, not 
merely to acquire additional power, but to retain what she already 
possessed. Many national Churches were almost independent of 
Rome, particularly that of France. Under the leadership of such 
men as Bossuet and Fenelon, backed by the enormous power of 
Louis XIV., France successfully resisted the encroachments of the 
Romish See, and even gave a name to all such opposition, namely, 
Gatticanism. But this independence of Rome is now only history; 
the Papal hierarchy of the present day is ultramontanist throughout, 
and the Church recognizes the Pope as infallible and supreme in all 
matters. Even France herself owns to the annihilation of her national 
Chuxch. The Count of Montalembert thus speaks, in 18-32 : 

" Let us all labor, according to the measure of our meekness, to 
maintain her (the Romish See) in this dignity, in this sovereign inde- 
pendence. We are entering upon the age of the regeneration of 
Catholicism, which will cousole us for all the outrages, all the d< 
tions, it has had to endure since the revival of paganism, four hundred 
years ago." 

The ultramontane doctrine, as enunciated by Bellarmine, and 
defended by the Jesuits, is now, in fact, the faith of the entire 
Romish clergy and Church. Bellarmine thus illustrates his posi- 
tion : 

"The Pope, as Tope, although he has not any merely temporal 
power, hath, nevertheless, in order to a spiritual good, the supreme 
power of disposing of the temporal concerns of all Christians." [Bel- 
larmine, chap, vi.) 

Again : 

"The clergy cannot be punished by political judges, neither be in 



POLITICAL POWER OF THE POPE. 223 

any way brought before the judicial chair of the secular magistrate. . . 
The Pope has redeemed the clergy from the obedience due to princes ; 
therefore kings are no more the superiors of the clergy." [Bellar- 
mine, chap. 28.) 

Another of the Fathers of the Romish Church is even more explicit. 
Baronius, in speaking of the supremacy of the Papal power, ob- 
serves : 

" All those who take from the Church of Rome, and from the See 
of St. Peter, one of the two swords, and allow only the spiritual, are 
branded for heretics." (Baronius, Ann. 1053, §14.) 

Political partisans and unscrupulous demagogues may assert that 
the march of civilization has caused Rome to relinquish these claims, 
but there never was a time when her pretensions have found more 
numerous or abler champions than at present. The doctrine is tri- 
umphant throughout the entire Papacy, and in Protestant countries 
it is pertinaciously asserted. 

To be convinced that this ultramontane power of the Popes is 
truly the belief of every faithful Romanist, we need only look to the 
writings of Brownson, in our own country. The opinions of his 
Review are endorsed by the Romish hierarchy throughout the States, 
and he therefore speaks the creed of his Church. 

" There is, in our judgment, but one valid defence of the Popes, in 
their exercise of temporal authority in the middle ages over sove- 
reigns, and that is, that they possess it by divine right, or that the 
Pope holds that authority by virtue of his commission from Jesus 
Christ, as the successor of Peter, the Prince of the Apostles, and visi- 
ble head of the Church." " As the denial of the spiritual au- 
thority soon leads to a denial of the temporal, so the denial of the 
temporal soon leads to the denial of the spiritual. When we found 
democracy even by nominal Catholics embraced in that sense in which 
it denies all law, and asserts the right of the people, or rather of the 
mob, to do whatever they please, and making it criminal in us to 
dispute their infallibility, we felt that we must bring out the truth 
against them, and if scandal resulted, we were not its cause. The re- 



224 A VOICE TO AMERICA. 

sponsibility rests on those whose obsequiousness to the multitude made 
our opposition necessary/ ' 

" " The Pope has the right to pronounce sentence of deposition against 
any sovereign, when required by the good of the spiritual order." 
{BrownsorCs Review, vol. i., p. 48.) 

" The power of the Church exercised over sovereigns in the middle 
ages was not a usurpation, was not derived from the concession of 
princes, or the consent of all people, but was, and is, held by divine 
right, and whoso resists it, rebels against the King of kings and Lord 
of lords." {Ibid., p. 47.) 

" She (the Church) bears by divine right both swords, but she ex- 
ercises the temporal sword by the hand of the princes or magistrates. 
The temporal sovereign holds it subject to her order, to be exercised 
in her service, under her direction." [Ibid., p. 60.) 

" The spiritual is not only superior to the temporal, but is its sove- 
reign, and punishes its law." [Ibid.) 

We consider this the most open-mouthed, bare-faced assertion of 
the temporal supremacy of the Popes over free governments and uni- 
versal suffrage of which it is possible to conceive, and this asserted 
too in a country which has separated Church and State, fearing the 
encroachments of the spiritual power. Has this man sworn to main- 
tain the Constitution of the United States! Can Jesuitry reconcile 
his words ^ ith Midi an oath . ; 

But this doctrine is developed in its utmost elaboration in the Eternal 
City. The Civilta Cattolica is a journal published at Rome under 
the auspices of the Pontiff, and its views and opinions are received by 
the Etomanists throughout the world as the effusions of the Holy S 
"In the course of a late article, this paper thus speaks : 

"What are the limits of the power of coercion? There are but 
tw<>, which, in fact, comprehend all others, namely, means and aim. . . . 
What tli^n are the limits of the Church's means? There are none 
except the limits of human power, and of the divine assistance by 
which the Church is comforted. As the Church commands the 
spiritual part of man directly, she therefore commands the whole 



POLITICAL POWER OF THE POPE. 225 

man, and all that depends^ on man From the darkness of the 

Catacombs she (the Church) dictated laws to the subjects of the em- 
perors, abrogating* decrees, whether plebeian, senatorial, or imperial, 
when in conflict with Catholic ordinances Did the Christian em- 
perors become insolent ? The Church armed against them their very- 
electors. To every rampant heresy the Church knew how to oppose 
the power either of the peoples or of their princes ; and when these 
supports seemed at last to have been snatched from her by a univer- 
sal rationalism, behold ! there is a sudden turning back of both ; — 
of the nations, fearing an unbridled royal power, and proclaiming the 
necessity of a supreme spiritual power ; of the princes, beginning to 
understand, at the light of a bloody communism, that the princi- 
ples of the Church are a firmer foundation for their thrones than 
bayonets, ichich must always he intrusted to a part of the people. . . . 
The conclusion is, therefore, that there are no limits to the exercise 
of the coercive power of the Church, either in view of her means or 
of her aim." (Civilta CattoMca, No. cxi., 2d Series, vol. viii., 
Nov., 1854, pp. 273-282.) 

This, we take it, is proof positive of the assumptions of Rome in 
regard to the civil power, but lest our readers should suppose these 
would not be enforced, we will give a further extract from the same 
article : 

•' Petty politicians may conclude that the Church has lost her 
power, because she does not enlist artillery, cavalry, and infantry ; 
but the truth is, that the artillery, cavalry, and infantry of the Catho- 
lics are in the hands of the Church, inasmuch as in her hands are 
the mind, the reason, and the power of every true Catholic." (Civ. 
Cat., ibid.) 

Such is the arrogance, such the declarations of the See of Rome in 
the nineteenth century ; nor is it probable that she will surrender pre- 
tensions which have been successfully asserted through ten centuries. 
It was by this authority, Paschal II., in 1099, deposed Henry IV. of 
Germany; Innocent III., in 1210, deposed Otho IV.; Gregory IX., 
in 1239, excommunicated Frederick II., and absolved his subjects 



226 A VOICE TO AMERICA. 

from their allegiance ; Innocent IV., in 1245, pronounced sentence 
of deprivation against the same Frederick; Boniface YIIL, in 1302, 
thundered forth against Philip le Bel of France the famous bull 
Unam Sanctum, containing the most extravagant assertions of the 
power of the Hol} T See ; Paul III., in 1536 and in 1538, deposed and 
damned Henry YIIL of England, and absolved his subjects from their 
allegiance ; Pius V., in 1570, uttered a bull against Queen Elizabeth, 
in which, " out of the fulness of apostolic power," he deprived her of 
" her pretended title to the kingdom," and released her subjects from 
" all manner of duty, dominion, allegiance, and obedience." In virtue 
of this same power, Spain is now impeded in her progress of reform, 
and Sardinia is expecting shortly to be excommunicated. 

A bull of the Pope was the death-blow to the revolution of Poland 
in 1830; like interference caused mischief to the Republics of Flo- 
rence, Genoa, Venice, and was the origin of the wars of the Sonder- 
bund in Switzerland in 1847. No struggle has ever taken place in 
favor of popular liberty, in any Romish country, but it has invariably 
met with opposition from the priesthood. 

We are at an utter loss to understand how Americans can be mis- 
led by assertions in their own country relative to Rome, when events 
of such magnitude are passing in Europe. Spain is struggling to 
throw off the overwhelming influence of the Church, yetRome abates 
not one of her pretensions. Sardinia, too, is entering upon her own 
regeneration and that of Italy, but the Eternal City is straining r\ ery 
nerve in opposition, and the country is daily fearing to be laid under 
interdict. It is the duty of Americans to keep pace Avith these events, 
and the favorers of the Papacy would then meet with small considera- 
tion at the hands of our citizens. 

The Sardinian government, having become enlightened by the 
spread of education and free opinion, entered upon a course of benefi- 
cent reform under the auspices of the late king, Carlo Alberto. His 
benevolent designs wore frustrated by Austria and Rome, and him- 
self compelled to abdicate. His son, Victor Emanuel, has steadily 
pursued the policy of his father ; but, as is invariably the case, the 



POLITICAL POWER OF THE POPE. 227 

Roniish Church places itself in opposition to the movement, and Sar- 
dinia is all but racked with civil war. The property of the clergy 
amounts to eighty millions of dollars a year, but is so unequally dis- 
tributed, that the government has been obliged to pay two hundred 
thousand annually for the support of the lower orders of the clergy. 
Between eight and ten thousand monks and nuns, inhabiting more 
than six hundred monastic establishments, enjoy an annual revenue of 
nearly half a million of dollars. Such enormous ecclesiastical wealth 
is felt to be a drain on the prosperity of the country, and the govern- 
ment finding it in the way of reform, has lately legislated upon it. 
This calls forth the fierce opposition of the clergy, and the Pope thus 
speaks of the decrees of the Sardinian government : 

" We reject and condemn not only all and each of the decrees of 
that government, hurtful to the rights and authority of religion, of 
the Church, and of the Holy See, but likewise the law lately proposed. 
We declare all these acts to be absolutely null and void." [Allocu- 
tion of Pope Pius IX., in Jan., 1854.) 

At the close of the Revolution, the Established Church of England 
still held ecclesiastical sway over the Episcopalians of America, and 
John Wesley had direction over the rapidly increasing denomination 
of Methodists. But the members of these Churches being Protest- 
ants, at once followed the example of the government, in separating 
from "foreign influences," and the spiritual power of foreign ecclesi- 
astics. This was done without injuring the cause of true religion, 
and was in strict accordance with the spirit of our institutions. The 
communicants of the Romish Church have alone persevered in their 
foreign allegiance, — an obedience at war with good citizenship, and, 
although denominated spiritual, is for all practical purposes a politi- 
cal despotism. 

We appeal to our readers. Is it patriotic, is it right to abstain from 
binding this enormous, this ever-increasing power, simply from fear 
of being accused of religious persecution ? When we find the sceptre 
and the crosier so bound together, that we cannot tell where one begins 
and the other ends, is it not the duty of every true American to crush 



228 A VOICE TO AMERICA. 

such a fearful hierarchy, such an overwhelming influence ? We are 
surrounded by countless thousands of foreign Romanists, -who, in their 
superstition, believe the priest to be a demigod ; the priests, in their 
turn, have no volition apart from their diocesan ; and the bishops rev- 
erence the Pope as God's vicegerent, in temporal as in spiritual mat- 
ters. The mind fails to conceive a system more suitable to attain 
power, and yet we are told that we should not fear the Pope. 

"While we are thus unconscious of danger, Rome is ever working ; 
her clergy throughout the different States are amassing untold wealth ; 
they are allying themselves with various parties, and rendering a- 
ance to demagogues ; they are studying the weak points in our politi- 
cal fabric, and the defects in our constitution ; and when they are 
strongest and we weakest, they will strike with a force, telling us but 
too strongly, that while we slept, Rome was ever watchful. 



Note. — See Appendix, "Relations of the Pope to the Civil Power'' — a Letter 
from O. A. Brownson, the chosen champion of Romanism in America. 



EVILS OF MILITARY ORGANIZATIONS EXCLUSIVELY 
OF FOREIGNERS. 

"An army, to be efficient, should have but one purpose, encourage but one object. Thismakes 
the mass invincible— the individuals, heroes. ,: — AnthOST WATWE. 

Of the many evils arising* from the want of a proper appreciation 
of the peculiarities of our institutions, one of the most pernicious is 
the formation of foreign and unnaturalized citizens into military com- 
panies savoring of the nationality of the countries from which they 
have emigrated. Although the tendencies of our government are 
eminently republican, giving free liberty of action and of conscience, 
still there are certain obligations, tending to its maintenance untram- 
melled by a foreign proclivity, which are due to the people at large, 
and to the laws under which this liberty is guaranteed. The mould- 
ing of the minds of our citizens on an American basis, through Amer- 
ican surroundings, and by American examples, should be the aim of 
every one who desires to retain the material which shall insure the 
perpetuity of our institutions. That material is founded in veneration 
for habits and customs of a purely American bias, irrespective of the 
individualities of any other country, and without regard to the senti- 
ments of any other nationality. 

The organization of foreigners into separate regiments, and even 
companies, is entirely subversive of the fundamental principles on 
which this republic is established. It was in order to annihilate all 
foreign influence and tyranny, that our country asserted its independ- 
ence, and took its rank among the governments of the world, not 
merely as an assemblage of free and independent States, but as one 
indissolubly united people, bound to each other by the same hostility 

11 



230 A VOICE TO AMERICA. 

to tyranny and love of liberty ; and actuated by the same principles 
and motives. It is only in this union, that our republic can hope to 
exist ; and every thing- that does not tend to preserve this unity, is 
disastrous in its nature, and should be resolutely discountenanced. 
Can it be said that organized bands of armed men unacquainted 
with our language, will produce the desired result? regiments having 
foreigners for their component parts, their officers drilling them in 
a foreign language ? 

The object for which the militia is formed is, to protect the country 
from foreign invasion, and from internal riots. Is it likely that in 
time of war these regiments of foreigners would be of the same ser- 
vice as when all speak the same language \ Would they be likely to 
take up arms against the country of their birth, in the event of our 
becoming involved in a war with that country ? It is well known 
that numbers of the German population of Williamsburg, New York 
city, and elsewhere, have threatened to arm themselves, in order to 
prevent the enforcement of a law which was distasteful to their feel- 
ings and opposed to their supposed interests. Would the German 
companies of those localities obey the summons, if they were ordered - 
to put down this armed resistance to our laws ? It is possible that 
the very men who have made this threat, are those who belong to 
some military organization, and depend upon the muskets which our 
authorities have placed in their hands as citizen-soldiers, to enable 
them to carry their threat into execution. 

Thus it will be seen that, if a foreign military organization be 
inimical in a national point of view, it is positively destructive on 
social grounds. The peace and order of our country, so long as they 
exist, are ev< r at stake; nor can it be otherwise, in the nature of thii 
The interminable hordes of emigrants who seek our large cities, con- 
stantly frequent the same localities, which renders them exclusive ; so 
thai an American entering certain neighborhoods, would fancy him- 
self in Germany or Ireland. The denizens haw little communication 
with the outside world,— hav their own papers, clubs, and gather- 
ings, — and are practically a distinct people. Laws may be enacted, 



MILITARY ORGANIZATION OF FOREIGNERS. 231 

affecting, as they believe, their rights ; these laws they refuse to obey. 
The municipal authorities order force to compel obedience ; but force 
can be met by force, since military companies exist, composed of the 
rioters themselves. Thus bloodshed may ensue. We have had pain 
ful examples of this fact in late years. It was only on the last anni- 
versary of St. Patrick's Day in New York, that such a probability was 
freely discussed in the papers, and looked for with foreboding's by our 
peaceable citizens. Is not this sufficient to open the eyes of our 
legislators to the crying evils of such organizations, and to induce 
the authorities to constitute them illegal \ 

Let us, for a moment, strip the subject of its dangerous results, and 
view it as a matter of taste. The plea of emigration to this country 
is, tyranny. The tools of power, whether through compulsion or 
choice, are the soldiers, — who are pleasing to the rulers by their 
pliant subserviency — and hateful to the people by their uniforms, their 
bado-e of office. Accustomed to view the soldier, and his constant 
presence, with a feeling of dread, — uncertain at what moment his 
power might be exercised on him, — the foreigner has little of ease or 
security associated in his reminiscences of their tinselled trappings. 
In the hovel, the dwelling, or the palatial residence, they are always 
present ; in village, town, or city, they are ever tramping. Their acts 
are servile, and their impulse tyrannical. Associated in the minds of 
the people with cruelty and oppression, — bearing on their persons the 
lively of tyranny, and enforcing its mandates with an undisguised 
zes t 5 — the foreigner is happy to flee their presence, and escape their 
power. And yet, in spite of these associations, and the dread inspired 
by them, they form themselves into volunteer companies, on their 
arrival here, and adopt the very uniforms which have oppressed them 
with fear, thus wilfully assuming the badge of tyrants. The folly (we 
might use a stronger expression) of this taste must be apparent to all 
who think about the matter, and is one of such peculiar import, that 
we seek in vain a reasonable excuse for its adoption. It is so much 
at variance with all our conceived notions of the impulses which 
govern the human breast, and is so glaring in its inconsistency, that 



932 A VOICE TO AMERICA 

we are forced to reflect upon it with some degree of apprehension, 
and look with a feeling of 'head at its ultimate operation. 

These foreign-accoutred regiments are found in every large city 
throughout the Union. There is not a single petty nationality in 
Germany but has its military representatives amongst our citizen- 
soldiers — German in blood, feelings, language, and dress; German 
in their officers and organization. France has given us fac-similes of 
those troops who perpetrated the atrocities of the sanguinary dema- 
gogues of her first revolution — troops who, in 1848, stormed Rome 
and annihilated the Italian republic. Austria presents us with the 
counterparts of those ruffians who, under the butcher Ilaynau, whip- 
ped delicate women to death, and waded knee-deep in blood through 
the plains of Italy and Hungary. Even contemptible little Hesse — 
whose hireling soldiery became so odious to our forefathers in the 
Revolution, and were the laughing-stock of their English comrades — 
even Hesse has her representatives among our military. But, worst 
of all, Americans, forgetting the glorious traditions of their country, 
and relinquishing every claim to self-respect, adopt the livery of a 
foreign prince — that same uniform which their forefathers used so. 
badly at Saratoga, Trenton, and Yorktown. 

We are at a loss t<> understand how Americans can sutler such 
outrages <>f all decency, such contempl for the historical associations 
of tin- Revolution. Where is the Executive, that such atrocities are 
permitted '. If these foreigners must become soldiers, why are they 
not compelled to wear the uniform of the United States — that dark 
gray and blue, which military men tell us is most suitable for such 
purposes? But no! our feelings must be outraged to meet the views 
of political hacks, who pander to the prejudices of these foreign co- 
horts, for vile party ends. Is the Eagle thus to be insulted in her own 
eyrie ? 

There is a motive, an intention in foreigners banding themselves 
together in military companies. Accustomed in their own country 
to see the soldiery paramounl to the <-ivil power, they hasten to clothe 
themselves in the same garb of power here, under the impression that 



MILITARY ORGANIZATION OF FOREIGNERS. 233 

they thus elevate themselves above the citizen, perfectly unconscious 
of the great principle of our government — that the civil power is para- 
mount to all other. Should any question be mooted in coming time, 
in which their jealousies and prejudices are enlisted against the patri- 
otism of this country, we shall bitterly rue our shortsightedness in 
placing arms in the hands of men, who cannot appreciate our institu- 
tions, and are ever ready to follow demagogues in their insidious at- 
tacks on the country and the Constitution. We have, in feet, re- 
moved a great incentive to virtue, by giving them the power to com- 
mit wrong. 

We cannot look upon the armed confederacy of foreigners, clothed 
in a uniform fashioned upon a foreign model, without, to say the least, 
a thought of its impropriety, and the entirely anti-American phase 
which it presents. It is certainly due to the feelings of citizens of this 
country who guarantee to foreigners the liberties they enjoy under 
our laws, that some degree of respect should be paid to their senti- 
ments, in the adoption of a uniform (if foreign companies must be 
formed), which will not insult their vision, nor interfere with their 
desire of having a citizen-soldiery, entirely American in appearance 
and feeling, although its individuals may be of foreign birth. 

There is a reason of great moment, which characterizes these pecu- 
liarly constituted companies as dangerous. By their means priest- 
craft is enabled to maintain a strong hold upon the mind and im- 
pulse of our foreign population, and even to effect results which are 
contrary to the Constitution and aim of our government, The found- 
ers of this Republic wisely ordained that religion and politics should 
not be associated together. Although no one religion is recognized 
by our laws as paramount to another, yet no one will deny that this 
country is essentially Protestant — Protestant in its foundation, in its 
principles, in its impulse and education, and opposed to all con- 
nection of Church and State. Were no other proof of its Protest- 
antism required, it could be found in its liberality towards the religi- 
ous sentiments of the people, in allowing them freedom of thought 
and opinion in the matter of sect or tenet. Were it a Roman Catho- 



234 A VOICE TO AMEEIOA. 

lie country, nil other denominations, years ago, would have been, by 
the thunders of the Vatican, "crushed out," and driven from its face, 
even though it required the aid of an Inquisition or an auto da fe. 
What then shall we say to the priesthood using the military for church 
display, and making the Flag of our Union bow in obsequious rev- 
erence to the Host ? We are at a loss to understand by what author- 
ity a mitred priest could command the attendance of regiments at the 
consecration of the Cathedral of St. Louis in 1834, when, amidst the 
thunder of American artillery, the Stars and Stripes were lowered in 
idolatrous veneration. Such scenes as these, not meetiue with the 
merited rebuke from the people that their gravity demanded, are con- 
sequently persisted in, and we find a parallel atrocity repeated in the 
city of Brooklyn, on the festival of Corpus Christi. 

" The ceremonies took place at the German Romanist Church, lo- 
cated in Montrose Avenue, Brooklyn, in that section of the late city 
of Williamsburg known as ' Dutch Town.' The neighborhood being 
almost exclusively German, the characteristics of Fatherland are visi- 
ble in many respects, of which this is one most prominent. The day 
wore the appearance of the Sabbath. Labor was at a stand ; the 
holiday-suit was donned, and the principal portion of the people 
flocked to the church to participate in the services. A military com- 
pany of tli.' locality, under command of one Captain Maerz, thorough- 
ly armed and equipped, with a full band, was on the ground. At 10 
o'clock the church was filled to attend mass, and hear the discourse 
for the occasion. During mass, and at certain intervals, while the 
organ was playing, and the choir and congregation chanting, the 
military company, drawn dp in line in front of the altar, pre- 
sented arms, and then followed in quick succession the roll of the 
drums, the sound of trumpets inside of the church, and loud discha 
of fire-arms outside of the church. This was repeat, d several times 

during tl rvices. The church was decorated with <-\' . and 

the altar with flowers. The edifice was filled t<> its utmosl rapacity 
by the congregation. At the close of the semi-military services, the 
military were marched into the street, and formed in front of tiro 



MILITARY ORGANIZATION" OF FOREIGNERS. 235 

church. Some further ceremonies, including a discharge of fire-arms 
at the side of the church, closed the services of the morning. The 
band of music playing — the military proceeded to their quarters, fol- 
lowed by an immense throng of spectators."* 

These are not exceptional instances, but proofs among many others 
of the determination of the Roman hierarchy to obtain power, and 
hold influence over the minds of its bigoted followers, by any and 
every means within its complicated machinery. 

The Romish Church is far-seeing — it sows to-day, knowing that a 
future generation will reap the bitter fruit. Gradually accustoming the 
public to the spectacle of the military in alliance with ecclesiasticism, 
they will ultimately claim this innovation as a right, and our soldiers 
will be looked upon as part of the religious power, and the natural 
defenders and supporters of the priesthood. This is Rome's aim, and 
yet our legislators, yea, we ourselves neither complain nor resist. 
Who are the commanders of these regiments and companies ? can it 
be that they willingly accord their permission to such conduct, and 
consent to the arms and accoutrements of the State being employed 
for such purposes ? What would be thought of the Episcopalians, 
Baptists, or Methodists, calling out the military to assist in their reli- 
gious services, and proclaiming " peace and good-will towards men" 
at the point of the bayonet ? The idea, even, is ridiculous ; and yet 
we permit the Romanists to persist in an abuse which we would 
immediately and deeply resent in any Protestant denomination. 

We contend that such proceedings are not merely in defiance of 
the feelings of a large majority of the people of the country, but are in 
direct opposition to the fundamental principles and spirit of our gov- 
ernment. The Executive is the only authority vested with power to 
call out the military, yet here we see a professedly religious body 
asserting equal power, and forming an imperium in imperio. How 
is it possible to make such regiments lose their national charac- 
teristics, surrounded as they are with a foreign, and to them kindred 
population, and controlled by a foreign priesthood? They have 

* See the New York Tribune, June 9th, 1855. 



236 A VOICE TO AMERICA. 

brought the bigotries of Papal Germany with them, and Protestant 
America, instead of passing laws for the restriction of these military- 
abuses, by her guilty silence tacitly consents to the arrangement. 

The wish of all men who have been oppressed, it would be sup- 
posed, would be to forget the uniforms and machinery of the land of 
their oppression, especially its political ones, and to banish from their 
sight all that can remind them of a former tyrant, most especially 
when they are the recipients of the blessings of Republican institutions. 
As long as these foreign organizations exist, the public mind will be 
kept in a ferment, and we shall be constantly startled by the announce- 
ments of disagreements between these foreign troops, and American 
officers, commanding divisions. Ere we are aware of it, discord will 
ensue, and blood will be shed, — the fearful consequence of which 
cannot be comprehended. The evils existing which are complained 
of, and the terrible catastrophes which loom up in the future, could 
all be avoided, if every State would pass laws requiring the citizen- 
soldiery to wear uniforms sanctified by American associations — loved, 
because they have only been worn in defence of freedom, and never 
disgraced as the livery of foreign potentates or mercenary slaves. 



DEMORALIZING INFLUENCE OF DEMAGOGISM. 

" For his thoughts were low, 
To vice industrious, but to nobler deeds 
Tim'rous and slothful ; yet he pleased the ear.'" 

Milton. 

One of the most pernicious characters brought forth by the abuse 
of free institutions is the Demaor>o-ue. His business is to obtain 
office and honors by corrupting the people. This degradation of can- 
didates for office, acts upon the voters. The good and true men are 
not appealed to ; the scramble is to secure the suffrages of the igno- 
rant and licentious, which are always for sale. A controlling minority 
of the "sovereigns," in this country, acquire a love for adulation, 
quite equal to that possessed by the rulers of the Old World, and in- 
stead of bestowing their favors with judgment and regard to the 
good of the community, they are to be solicited by gross flattery, 
or purchased with a given price. The true standard of merit, pri- 
vate worth, and acknowledged capacity, is lost in personal consider- 
ations ; and the Demagogue rides into office, not because he has 
shown attention to any useful business, but because he has blown 
his own trumpet, degraded himself among his constituency, and won 
the character, among the thoughtless, of being the best fellow in the 
State. The slime of his contact can be traced among the members 
of the bar, on the bench, in the pulpit, in our legislative assemblies. 
The Demagogue is the professed worshipper of the sovereign people. 
He is a fawning sycophant at the foot of power, — ever grovelling 
on his knees in the dust, ready to do any act, however debased, per- 
form any service, however wrong, if he can but win the patron- 
age and smiles of his deity. Change the relations of the Demagogue 

11* 



23S A VOICE TO AMERICA. 

from a republican to monarchical government, and lie would still be 
the same, and, true to liis ruling passion, worship the fountain of 
power. It is the Demagogue who labors to retard the improvement 
of society, who endeavors to break down the self-imposed restraints 
so necessary to make a good citizen ; who tells the vicious that they 
are good — the ignorant that they are wise; who, in short, demoralizes 
society, by always appealing to the passions instead of the reason of 
the people, who represent the sovereign power. 

The lust of office which generally seems to be the strongest in 
the minds of persons least capable of filling them with honor, gives 
rise to demagogism ; and the people, occupied by the various avoca- 
tions of life, are apt, as far as the government is concerned, to al- 
low assumed (self-elected) leaders to do their thinking. The sub- 
lime privilege granted to freemen, of choosing their public servants 
is thus trifled with, and hence arise most of the glaring evils in the 
working of our free institutions. We often witness in members of 
our legislative bodies, an appalling recklessness with regard to their 
pledges made before election, and also in their private life. We 
find at AVa.-hington, as well as in our State capitals, an infinitely 
lower standard of morals among public men, than is demanded of 
the same individuals in the communities in which they reside. 

The regime of the Demagogue is secured through different causes, 
all, however, subversive of the strength of our free institutions. 
The neglect of intelligent voters to attend the polls, and a general 
indifference to the machinery which brings candidates before the 
people, are perhaps among the most pernicious. Americans who 
thus trifle with the sacred privileges of their birthright, excuse 
themselves upon the ground^ that the business of politics is distaste- 
ful, and the associations around the ballot-box and the unworthiness 
of candidates cause them to stay at home. The consequences of 
this criminal apathy are becoming every day more apparent in the 
acknowledged utter incapacity of a large majority of our public men, 
and in the disgraceful scenes that attend tlie carnivals of every legis- 
lative body. 



DEMORALIZING INFLUENCE OF DEMAGOGISM. 239 

The chief source of deinagogisui, however, is the constant in- 
gress into our country of ignorant foreigners, not always destitute 
of literary cultivation, but entirely without any practical knowledge 
of our institutions. The Demagogues proclaim, through the pen and 
from the stump, that our republican form of government can only 
exist by virtue of intelligence and morality among the governed, 
and in the next breath they tell the undisciplined and ignorant im- 
migrant, that he has the capacity and the right, from the day he 
lands upon our shores, to sit in judgment upon the claims of our 
candidates for office, and to participate in all the privileges enjoyed 
by Americans, who add to their birthright and descent the disci- 
pline acquired from law-abiding habits, and a life-long practice in the 
science of self-government. The foreigner may have democratic 
opinions, but the American has a democratic character as well as 
democratic opinions ; and bath these qualities are essential to make 
a person fit to perform, intelligently, the duties of American citizen- 
ship. 

The Demagogue, finding that the priest has an uncontrolled power 
over the immigrants, seeks to secure his influence, that he may ob- 
tain the support of his priestly authority at the polls. The proposi- 
tion is, " Secure me office, and I will secure you the interests of your 
church." The effect is seen in the actiomHf our legislative bodies, 
who grant exclusive privileges and enormous donations to the Rom- 
ish Church, while they rudely deny the same privileges and dona- 
tions to Protestant denominations. And why ? Because no Pro- 
testant clergyman can control the votes of his parishioners. JSTo 
freeman accustomed to judge for himself will submit even to advice, 
unasked, much less dictated to, in a matter purely political. Innu- 
merable instances might be given of the invidious special legislation 
referred to, either accomplished or attempted. Our readers will 
remember the struggle made by this spirit of demagogism, direct- 
ed by priestcraft, to break up the unity of the public school sys- 
tem of the State of New York, and to throw a large part of the 
money advanced by tax-payers, and appropriated for the education 



210 A VOICE TO AMERICA. 

of all the children of the State, into the hands of foreign ecclesiastics, 
to be used by them for sectarian and proselyting purposes. The 
Romish priests obtained a few years ago, from the Common Council 
of New York city, a grant of thirty-two lots of land without any con- 
sideration whatever ! while at the same time, a Protestant Benevolent 
Association, for much less valuable property in the immediate vicin- 
ity, was made to pay thirty-eight thousand dollars. When Bishop 
Hughes opened his Cemetery at Newtown, he obtained a special 
ordinance, exempting those who used it from the necessity of ob- 
taining "permits" from the City Inspector, such as are demanded 
from individuals of all other denominations when they bury the 
dead. This special legislation in favor of Romish priests will be 
found to have taken place in almost every State. It is the substan- 
tial reward which that cunning hierarchy seek, in exchange for their 
political influence ; and they will be able to traffic it off at high 
prices, as long as the people are too supine to eject the Demagogues 
from the public service, and to find, and employ in it, only the honest 
and capable. 

But the Demagogue does not confine himself to this quiet tam- 
pering with the priests, who hold the reins over so many of the im- 
migrating population. They aspire also to win the "most sweet 
voices" of the strangers,^ appealing immediately to their vanity and 
their passions. Our immigrant population having never felt in 
their native land, any other relation towards the established laws, 
than that of the oppressed to the oppressor, and having been habit- 
ually compelled to a blind, yet unwilling obedience, understand 
therefore by liberty, only the power to set the restraints of the law 
at defiance, and to violate its commands with impunity. Arriving 
in the United States, they are at once seized upon by the Dema- 
gogue. He flatters them with the wildest delusions as to their value 
in this country, and as to the motives of their coming, which he 
impudently perverts, even in defiance <»t' their own knowledge. He 
informs them, that to them the country is indebted, nut only for 
its freedom, but for its wealth. He ascribes to them 'and their pre- 



DEMORALIZING INFLUENCE OF DEMAGOGISM. 241 

decessors in their westward journey, the vast internal improvements 
of our land ; as if, forsooth, Irishmen had dug and built our thou- 
sands of miles of canals, and our tens of thousands of miles of rail- 
roads, had tunnelled our mountains, and bridged our rivers, out of 
pure benevolence and kindness, to assist our helpless nation ! He 
informs them that their coming here is a voluntary tribute to our 
republican institutions ; that, instead of being accidentally related to 
our form of government, as, according to the Demagogue, the natives 
are, they, the immigrants, occupy the superior position of those who 
select with great care the form of government under which they 
choose to live. 

Readily swallowing such pleasant flatteries, the gullible foreigner 
loses all respect for the men or the institutions of his adopted coun- 
try. Every necessary prescription of the law is resented ; its power, 
although the legitimate will of the majority, is as odious as if ema- 
nating from his European rulers, and never having learned any self- 
restraints, he neither can nor will make nor appreciate the sacrifices 
which freemen are daily called upon to make for the sake of the 
public weal. 

Amongst the natives of his own country, our Demagogue does 
not find so fertile a field for the exercise of his snaky gifts. Yet, 
even there, as there are always many less wise than the wisest, the 
Demagogue, although he may not be able to cram his patients with 
such gross concoctions as he serves up to the degraded foreigner, 
contrives to accomplish much evil by dexterously gilding the pill he 
administers. Whatever may be the weakness of his audience, what- 
ever their error ; whether they are right or wrong, he preaches their 
doctrine. Vox populi, vox Dei, he cries — the people's voice is God's 
voice : he demonstrates to them that they must be right, and mod- 
estly intimates that his complete conviction of that fact makes him 
the only fit man to accomplish their will. They may safely trust in 
him, and in his servile obedience, until there shall appear something 
or somebody offering a higher bribe. 

The American Demagogue is a shameless monster, without par- 



242 A VOICE TO AMERICA. 

allel, without compeer. He stands alone in the infamy of his eon- 
duct, solitary in the sublime prostitution of his intellect, in the utter 
corruption of his heart. His is the double guilt of the sinner, who 
sins against clear light. Born in a nation peculiarly founded, and 
maintained by disinterested patriotism, he considers the love of coun- 
try only narrow-mindedness, and almost thinks it treason to be proud 
of being born a citizen of the Republic. In a commonwealth, of 
which integrity and disinterested public spirit are the very life, he 
lives without principle or patriotism, whiffling about at every wind 
of political doctrine, and outwardly bowing with supple knees to the 
popular idol of the hour, while all the time, careless either of the 
nation or of right, the secret devotion of all his little selfish heart is 
expended in the idolatrous worship of his own purposes. Believing 
nothing, he puts on by turns the semblance of belief in every thing. 
He manufactures facts, statistics, history, philosophy, religion, to or- 
der, to suit his customers. He has passions always at command. 
Tears or smiles are squeezed out, to suit the occasion, and the doc- 
trine of t'he day " commands his hearty support and consistent ad- 
vocacy," as did the doctrine of yesterday, and as also will the doc- 
trine of to-morrow. 

At the magnetic touch of interest he flies, like a telegraphic 
dispatch, back and forth from one end to the other of the longest 
and most divergent lines of belief. Is a law popular \ it is pre- 
cisely what he always knew was needed. Does it become unpop- 
ular? he had always considered it oppressive, unconstitutional, 
and unnecessary. He would sacrifice the well-being of the nation 
for an office; the prosperity of the whole commonwealth, and his 
own conscience into the bargain — no great addition, to be sure — 
for a better salary or a fat job. He would defame his native land 
to secure an election ; he would spit on the graves of his forefathers 
to gain a vote. For the base support of foreign priests, the votes 
of besotted immigrants, he will falsity history, and belie the fame of 
a thousand heroes. To gain such an object, 1^ can find but one 
American who was distinguished in our Revolutionary struggle, 



DEMOKALIZING INFLUENCE OF SEMAGOGISM. 243 

and he would name as that one, Benedict Arnold ! He would 
announce that the brnnt of that fearful strife was borne by foreign- 
ers, and that our Revolutionary battles were won for us by the 
personal prowess of Lafayette, of Montgomery, of De Kalb. 

Do our naturalized citizens murmur at any restraints upon their 
actions, at any laws and legal prohibitions, unusual to them — the 
Demagogue seizes the occasion, and eagerly strives to ride into 
office. He inflames the brutal rage of the mob ; he goads angry 
men to murder and sedition ; he shrinks not from awaking all 
the horrors of licentiousness and anarchy, from stirring up whirl- 
winds of baleful passions, if only his own dear objects may be 
attained by the crime. It is always easier to persuade to evil 
than to persuade to good. Poor human nature needs very little 
impulse in the path of wrong. Our laws and constitutions are 
not made as iron fetters and shackles are made, to grip and chain 
the ferocious violence of stubborn felons or murdering maniacs — 
they are made to guide the wise and congenial conduct of men 
seekino- to do right. The Demagogue takes advantage of this to 
pervert the privilege of goodness into an occasion of crime ; to 
the downward tendency of all the lower and viler parts of men's 
nature ; to the exaggerated passions and blind brutality, the foolish 
prejudices and dogged obstinacy, of all the dregs of the community, 
of the untaught, the vicious, and the lawless ; to the fearful mo- 
mentum of this mass of dangerous and explosive elements, the Dem- 
aowue lends all the energies of his being. He throws all his 
weip-ht to sink the fortunes of his country ; he drags downward 
with all his might, towards the destruction of his native land. With 
the recklessness of the madman, but with more method in his mad- 
ness, and therefore more dangerous effect, h.e "casts firebrands, arrows, 
and death." He cares not if he witness the conflagration of the 
whole Republic ; for he intends to fill his own pockets by the thefts 
which he hopes to commit with impunity during the confusion. 

God has not left any evil without providing a remedy, although 
he often leaves men to use it. The dark portrait which we have 



2-i-l- *V VOICE TO AMERICA. 

drawn, is not that of a necessary incubus upon our body politic. 
The Demagogue, the scourge of republics, only exists by suffer- 
ance. When the good and true men of the nation arise and 
act, this villain is crowded off the stage. It is now as it was in 
the homely but inspired parable of the Scriptures: "While the 
husbandman sleeps, the enemy sows tares." It is only when the 
right men neglect their duty, and leave their posts vacant, that 
the Demagogue can occupy the scene of action ; can perform his 
fantastic tricks, and concoct his unprincipled schemes; can mar- 
shal his foolish regiments, and accomplish his vile undertakings. 
He lives by sufferance, and although his guilt is his own, yet hon- 
est men must remember that upon them rests the responsibility of 
permitting his sin to succeed. Upon their heads, after all, will lie 
the fearful responsibility of having, by criminal supineness, permit- 
ted the enactment of all the wickedness which Demagogues perpe- 
trate. * 



WHAT CONSTITUTES THE RIGHT TO VOTE? 

" The preservation of the sacred fire of liberty, and the destiny of the republican model of gov- 
ernment, are justly considered as deeply, perhaps as finally, staked on the experiment intrusted to 
the hands of the American people." — Washington. 

All human rights are either natural or acquired. They must 
either reside in the individual, co-equal with his life and the varied 
faculties of his nature, or become delegated to him by concession, by 
compromise, or by some specific compact to which he is a legitimate 
party. 

Natural rights are absolute and inalienable : they rely on no pre- 
sumptions of an arbitrary character, but are fully prescribed and or- 
dained with the existence of man. Whether exercised or not, a man 
cannot, by any enactment, be divested of their proper and positive 
possession. They may be yielded to the unlawful encroachments of 
other men, but the concession is merely temporary, and cannot be 
considered to invalidate the individual's privilege of resuming their 
exercise at such time as he may think proper. 

All men, says the Declaration of Independence, are born free and 
equal ; they possess certain inalienable rights, such as life, liberty, and 
the pursuit of happiness. These are their natural endowments, and 
by no lawful process can they be taken from them. The Bill of 
Rights, which was adopted by the Colonial Deputies at Philadelphia, 
previous to the Declaration, declared that the people were entitled to 
life, liberty, and property ; and that they had never ceded to any 
sovereign power whatever a right to dispose of either, without their 
consent. 

These inheritances, therefore, belong to us by nature. One man 
possesses them as largely as another. Factitious circumstances can- 



240 A VOICE TO AMERICA. 

not enlarge their limits, nor can oppression and usurpation contract 
them. Wherever a human being is to be found, there these rights 
of necessity exist They owe nothing of their strength to conven- 
tional usages and laws, nor are they sustained in any fullei force be- 
cause they may happen to commend themselves to the approbation 
of enlightened men. Thev are rooted in the individual, and cannot 
by any violence be wrested from his nature : they are among the 
necessary conditions of his being* 

Acquired rights exist by a different tenure. They hold their title 
either by concession, by compromise, or by compact. Their prerog- 
ative is more nicely defined. Certain limits bound them, beyond 
which their progress is forbidden. They are described with accuracy, 
and secured by due processes of legal enactment. Of such are the 
privileges of the subject, or the citizen. The former holds his by vir- 
tue of a kingly concession or compromise ; in either case admitting the 
subject to rights and prerogatives which he does not naturally possess. 
The latter enjoys his by virtue of his compact with the general au- 
thority of which he is a component part. 

It is only of the rights of the citizen that we propose to speak in 
this place — all others being foreign to the subject under consideration 
— and not of the natural, but of the acquired, rights of the citizen. 

As the human race is constituted, its entire history illustrates the 
imperative necessity of some method of social organization. Left to 
themselves, all thing- would immediately relapse into a condition of 
misrule and barbarism. Certain powers must be vested in certain in- 
dividuals, from whom, by a reverse process, all acts of authority are 
to emanate. Influences which one individual would not permit any 
indifferent person to exercise over himself and his interests by a con- 
sent, either expressed or implied, he freely allows some other person 
to exert without protest or opposition. 

Eence arise forms of government that give character to the <}<■■■*]> 
of men, and shape the destiny of nations. Hence ensue decrees, 
edicts, proclamations, and laws. These evidences of authority testify 
everywhere to the admitted necessity of some ruling and guiding 



WHAT CONSTITUTES THE EIGHT TO VOTE? 247 

power. They are an expression of the opinion of all men, that a con- 
trolling authority of some character is demanded by every considera- 
tion of human welfare. 

There can exist but two general forms of government, let the spe- 
cific titles of the various kinds of authority be what they may. Every 
government must be either arbitrary or constitutional. Every thing 
that tends to usurpation, or that operates to defraud individuals of the 
enjoyment of their natural rights, no matter in what cause or name 
professed, belongs to absolutism and arbitrariness. Some govern- 
ments style themselves constitutional, whose very constitutions are 
arbitrary in themselves, and do not receive their vitality from any co- 
operation of the popular will. Thgir practices give the lie to their 
professions, proving them what they wish to avoid seeming to be. 
Principles strike their root much deeper than professions, and by their 
natural fruits their true character is understood. 

Constitutional or voluntary forms of government derive their au- 
thority from the immediate consent of the governed ; that is the only 
source of their power. They are but the emphatic expression of the 
popular will, and, as that will changes its direction, must they alter 
the direction of their authority. 

The American Government is of the strictly constitutional form. 
No powers reside in it but those delegated by the people, who are its 
founders. It derives no authority from usurpation, but the whole of 
it from voluntary cession. Its existence and its strength alike depend 
upon the spirit and intelligence of those who give it vitality and sup- 
port. Its powers are every one carefully described and defined. Its 
prerogatives have a fixed and unalterable limit. The Ttatural rights 
of man are not invaded by any of its usurpations, but are retained in- 
violate by the individual, and guarded from aggression with a jealous 
watchfulness. 

Indeed, +he question is seriously agitated under this auspicious form 
of government — How much is it profitable for a man to be gov- 
erned ? How far is it best for him to yield up his own rights in the 
name of the welfare of the whole ? Where shall the dividing line be 



248 A VOICE TO AMERICA. 

drawn that is to separate the control of one's self from the control of 
a voluntarily constructed authority? From the discussion of such a 
question various conclusions have, at different times, been arrived at ; 
and, among others, that " that is the best government which governs 
men the least." This seems almost to have become an aphorism ; 
and the spirit of the idea is by no means inoperative in the general 
workings of our political system. 

Under our government no man is a subject — all men are citizens ; 
because it is never acknowledged that the government, deriving its 
existence primarily from the individual, is superior in itself to its ori- 
gin. In the nature of things, it could not be. A citizen is in no 
manner a subject, nor can a subject be a citizen. However specious 
may be the reasoning that seeks to make the two characters se< 
compatible with one another, their differences are too wide to be rec- 
oncilable. The subject makes concessions that the citizen would 
not admit. The subject lacks inherent power, not because he has 
delegated it to another, but because he never yet was allowed its pos- 
session or exercise. By the citizen it has been vested in other hands 
for the very purpose of its more safe and careful administration ; re- 
verting to him after stated intervals, to be again trusted to other de- 
positaries for the same general purpose of a healthful and constitu- 
tional exercise. 

Citizenship, therefore, implies no ordinary privileges. Its possession 
argues from the individual directly to the government. It com; 
the man with all the operations of the laws and the whole scope of 
public institutions, and associates him in close relations with whatever 
belongs to the common welfare. It removes the many tendencies to 
selfishness and egotism in his permitted pursuits, and makes him large, 
comprehensive, and generous in his conduct and views. It widens 
the sphere of individual sentiment and action, so that a man may at 
the same time be true to his own interest, and not forgetful of the 
vast and complicated interests of the whole. 

In fine, citizenship can he enjoyed only where men are free. In 
any other condition, the character of the possession at once is changed. 



WHAT CONSTITUTES THE EIGHT TO VOTE? 240 

being held on terms that impliedly declare the government to be ar- 
bitrary, and the people to be subjects. It belongs only to institutions 
that are democratic in their nature, and to states, of society in which 
men are the arbiters of their own rights and fortunes. 

For the possession of such prerogatives there certainly should be some 
rigid and absolute qualifications. To put one's self in direct relation- 
ship with the moral and social interests of a great nation, it should be 
insisted that there exist certain preliminary conditions. Such a rela- 
tionship should not be rashly entered upon, nor without serious thought 
of the mutual result to both the individual and the mass. The gov- 
ernment, relying on the intelligence and understanding of each one 
of the vast number that contribute to its character, it must be seen 
that no single violation of the conditions of such a connection can 
pass without its proper share of wrong to the whole. If the individ- 
ual forgets his duty as a party to the general compact, the rest are 
defrauded of that moral and political security for which they had a 
perfect right to hold him responsible. If he neglect the obligations 
of his oath and pledge, the rest are so far losers by his act of repudi- 
ation. If he be a tool in the designing hands of those who intrigue 
for the overthrow of political freedom, the entire nation is to that de- 
gree involved in the web of fear and insecurity. 

The origin of all government is j>roperty ; the manner in which 
that property is held determines its form. If the lands 8f a commu- 
nity have but one possessor, it is an autocracy ; if partitioned by a few, 
an aristocracy ; if the inherent right of the whole 'people, this forms 
a democracy. Res-republica, common-wealth, represent, not merely 
the form, but the basis of government. 

Man is entitled to sustenance and protection from that society in 
which nature places him at birth. There are, however, certain causes 
which may compel him to forsake one community for another. What 
relation do his acquired privileges bear to the rights of the new so- 
ciety ? 

A stranger can only acquire property in a foreign community by 
permission of the owners — that is, the state. But in acquiring this 



250 A VOICE TO AMERICA. 

is lie necessarily entitled to all the privileges of the natives ? Because 
he has forsaken the land of his birth, is the land of his adoption com- 
pelled by any law, human or divine, to place him on a perfect equality 
with her own children \ By the political constitution of the new so- 
ciety he may enjoy all their privileges, but, in the nature of thi: _ 
he lias not, and never can have, such a right to them as the sons of 
the soil. That which is granted as a favor, can never be asserted as 
a right. 

In a republic the power is in the hands of the whole people, for the 
entire land is theirs. For convenience in legislation they appoint men 
to represent their interests, hence the representative is the servant of 
the represented. This is obvious : no man can represent the interests 
of others unless delegated so to do ; this power conferred necessarily 
subjects him to the will of those who bestow the office. Hence no man 
has a right to office, which it may be in "the power of others to refuse. 

Representatives having to be chosen, there arises a momentous 
question — What gives the right to vote ? We have shown that 
where the right to property belongs to all, power is universal ; there- 
fore, suffrage must be universal. But we must define this, in regard- 
to men who have not a born- rigid in the country, but simply one of 
tolerance or permission. 

Government takes cognizance of the entire property of the country, 
thai is to say, the land and its products belonging to the sons of the 
soil — the entire community decide (by representation or otherwise) 
in the general interest. Strangers arriving in their midst receive as a 
gift a certain portion of that which is the right only of the native- 
born. Is it logical to assert that this gift carries with it the right to 
vote, or, in other words, to legislate for those who have just granted 
what it was in their power to refuse ? Such an argument is mon- 
strous, yet it is one which we hear constantly asserted. 

Escape from the then existing systems of European government, as 
well as from its religious hierarchies, prompted our forefathers to set- 
tle what were termed the American colonies. In process of time 
they achieved a separate nationality in regard to other countries, a 



WHAT CONSTITUTES THE EIGHT TO VOTE? 251 

federation of states to themselves, in which each state was independ- 
ent of the others. 

" The character of our people was admirably calculated for setting 
the great example of popular government. They were accustomed 
to representative bodies and the forms of free government ; they un- 
derstood the doctrine of the division of power among different 
branches, and the necessity of checks on each. The character of our 
countrymen, moreover, was sober, moral, and religious."* 

This portraiture forms an obvious opinion on claims set up by dem- 
agogues and others in favor of the so-called rights of our foreign pop- 
ulation. The entire body of emigrants to this country for many years 
past, with but few exceptions, never exerted the slightest control over 
any government whatsoever : are Ave then to be told that such men can 
appreciate and properly wield the electoral power in a country, the 
political constitution of which is so difficult to understand ? Besides, 
is the moral character of these emigrants calculated to remove any 
fears we may entertain relative to the uses to which they will put 
this novel power ? We take it experience is very much inclined to a 
negative. 

There is no principle in the American Constitution which guaran- 
tees land or political power, by vote or otherwise, to foreign citizens. 
These men do not leave Europe as did the first settlers of this conti- 
nent ; they are, in fact, dissimilar in every respect. Europe disgorges 
a surplus population — people she can best afford to lose : they arrive 
in forma pauperis, and our authorities permit them to reside. In 
process of time they begin to have a stake in the country, and maybe 
lose their ancient prejudices; they are permitted to vote at elections. 
But they have not, and never can have, the same right, either to one or 
the other, which a native-born citizen possesses. 

At various periods in our history laws relative to naturalization have 
been passed, exacting, in some instances, but two years of residence in 
the country. Circumstances might then have justified so short a pro- 
bation, but, at the present time, not merely has the class of emigrants 

* Webster. 



252 A VOICE TO AMERICA. 

changed, but the country itself lias been radically modified : it has, in 
fact, assumed a nationality that it did not formerly p< assess. Dem- 
agogues enunciate a monstrous proposition in asserting this republic 
to be one of composite races. It is not. The Republic of the United 
States is Anglo-Saxon in all its bearings : other peoples may arrive, 
but they must be gradually absorbed, and, in process of time, become 
amalgamated with, and lost among, the predominant race. Ethnology 
and history both, assert this fact, and the senseless opponents of it are 
merely perpetuating the evils of caste, in pandering to the prejudices 
of various nationalities. It is the province and duty of the patriot to 
discountenance such, endeavors. 

The objection is frequently advanced that in thus debarring a 
whole class, men are kept out, whose aim in adopting American citi- 
zenship is to enjoy a political freedom, wliich experience tells them 
can only be found here. But it would be scarcely possible to enu- 
merate all these exceptional instances ; suffice it to say, the legislature 
might be permitted to admit such cases to citizenship, especially 
where services have been rendered to the country, or additions to its 
glory. This is fully consonant with the democratic principle ; but, in^ 
any case, it is much better for the country to lose the advantage of 
such instances, than to receive with them the immense masses who are 
fasl making universal suffrage a mockery and delusion. 

The hordes of emigrants who yearly crowd our shores, seek us, not 
to obtain a voice in government, but a certainty of life, food, and per- 
sonal freedom, which they never before enjoyed. If, like the adder 
warmed into life by the peasant, they get prosperous, and turn upon 
their benefactor ; or, listening to the voice of vale demagogues and 
designing politicians, they raise tumult and civil discord in the land, 
then surely native-born citizens have a natural and a constitutional 
right to curb such disorder, and to legislate so as, in future, to pre- 
vent any doubt as to whether an American have a nationality or not. 

In America, no man becomes a citizen through the inllucnce of 
either money or titles. It was a wise act of our forefathers, when 
they abolished titles, except such only as might be the expression of 



WHAT CONSTITUTES THE RIGHT TO VOTE? 253 

simple respect ; and it has conduced more effectually to the complete 
political equality of all classes of citizens than many measures about 
which vastly more has been sai<!. It taught the people the truth, 
that there was in America noth '. :; reciter than citizenship itself; and 
weaned them rapidly from the > : !ish inclination, that is no part of a 
high and self-reliant manhood, i > bestow honor upon the emptiest of 
human pretensions. 

Citizenship, if it involves the & jrious responsibilities that exist along 
with its possession, presumes — or, at least, should presume — certain 
fixed qualifications. If the elector be ignorant of those responsibili- 
ties, assuredly he cannot be supposed to assume them ; and if he fails 
to assume them, it is proper that he be refused the use of the elec- 
toral franchise until such time as his ignorance has yielded to a more 
profound understanding of his obligations. Nothing can be plainer 
than this. And yet there are Americans, who should know better 
what is the priceless worth of our institutions, who seek to throw 
open every means of access to a privilege that should be guarded 
with so watchful a care, and affect indifference to qualifications of 
such momentous importance, — men seemingly careless of the true 
character of the liberty which we profess, and ignorant of the certain 
consequences of licentiousness and misrule that are to follow close 
upon any laxity of electoral obligations. Such men need to study 
more thoughtfully the meaning of our government, and the true 
spirit and character of its institutions. 

Any native-born citizen, on attaining the age of twenty-one years, 
and having taken the oath of allegiance to the Constitution and fidel- 
ity to the laws, is admitted to all the privileges of the electoral fran- 
chise. He has the right to vote on all questions affecting the common 
interest, and by the deposit of his ballot throws his individual influ- 
ence into the scale of political affairs. He is licensed to assist in the 
regulation of the highest and the lowest interests that pertain to the 
welfare of the nation. He may make the power of his influence felt 
throughout all the affairs of state. Law and order are intrusted to 
his hands for preservation. The general intelligence will either 

12 



254: A VOICE TO AMERICA. 

advance or retrograde, according to the power of his vote and exam- 
ple. The public peace and prosperity depend upon the manner in 
which his privilege as an elector is exercised. The national character 
is elevated or depressed, as his own character is made to impress itself 
upon its existence. 

Gaining so exalted a right on such easy terms, unless some steps 
be taken to secure the elector's intelligent appreciation of his privi- 
leges and responsibilities, his individual gain must of necessity be the 
country's loss. An ignorant and degraded citizen can be only a bad 
citizen ; and a bad citizen, assuredly, is worse than none. We had 
better all remain peaceful subjects, than become irresponsible and 
licentious citizens. 

What, then, should those qualifications be for possessing and enjoy- 
ing the electoral privilege ? This is the important question that so 
immediately concerns all the free citizens of America. It presents 
itself to us at this day, demanding a thoughtful but speedy answer. 
That there should be certain fundamental qualifications, of a general 
and disciplinary nature, attached to the privilege of voting, we do not 
see how any intelligent American can doubt. The more extended the 
responsibilities, the greater should be the precautions to make them 
appreciated and understood. The more valuable the character v( the 
possession, the more positive the need of its being impressed on the 
mind of every one who is admitted to it as a participator. 

In the first place, it seems necessary to insist on some degree of 
familiarity with the principles and working of our constitutional form 
of government. The native-born citizen acquires this in the course 
of his education from his youth up. Even if not much given to 
reflection^ and to the habit of tracing results back to their original 
causes, he nevertheless is placed and kept within the circle of those 
ever-recurring events which mark the movements of our political sys- 
tem ; and even imperceptibly, and unconsciously to himself, he is 
taught l>v them lessons of the highest importance to the better un- 
derstanding of the institutions that surround him. The very atmo- 
sphere that he breathes is conducive to his progress in the right 



WHAT CONSTITUTES THE RIGHT TO VOTE? 255 

direction. All his associations -are pregnant with the instruction of 
which he has so much need. 

The alien knows nothing of these things. What acquaintance he 
obtains with the principles of constitutional freedom, must be had 
only through the instrumentality of his own studious and persistent 
efforts. Nothing comes to him by mere force of education, or 
through the facile medium of early associations. In a strange land, 
he is himself an utter stranger. He may understand that here his 
physical condition is susceptible of the largest possible improvement, 
and yet he may remain in the grossest ignorance of the vital truths 
and principles by whose agency alone that improvement is so firmly 
secured. Such strange things present themselves to our observation 
daily. 

Unless the elector has a clear apprehension as well of the character 
as of the workings of the institutions under which he lives, it can 
hardly be supposed of him that he is truly capable of exercising the 
electoral franchise. The possession of that privilege should of neces- 
sity presuppose a certain degree of intelligent capacity both to employ 
and enjoy it. Unless that capacity is present, there remains so much 
more of ignorance to be overcome by the superior intelligence of the 
rest, and they are losers to the extent of that ignorance over the popu- 
lar mind. 

In the second place, no man should be an elector, possessing its 
various powers and privileges, who has not already asserted and 
proven his decided preference for free institutions over all others, and 
is not willing to live perpetually under the active operation of the 
principles in which they are rooted. It may be replied, we admit, 
that the elector's oath, taken at the time of becoming a participator 
in the privilege of the electoral franchise, is prima facie evidence of 
such a preference and willingness ; yet, as the details of our political 
affairs have from time to time exhibited themselves on the surface, it 
is by no means so well established, that behind that solemn assevera- 
tion there lurks no dangerous reservation. We have had abundant 
proof in our own day, that the oath of the freeman is too often for- 



256 A VOICE TO AMERICA. 

gotten, — vitiated by the force of secret compacts, — nay, scouted, 
denied, and derided, by men to whom in safety its administration 
should have been refused. We have had not a few most melancholy 
reminders of the insecurity that attends the too free and unguarded 
gift of its power, to those who had no proper estimate of its use or 
value. These warnings appeal directly to the cause of liberty and a 
free government, and have no connection with considerations of mere 
personal safety or personal prejudice. 

It seems to be the most natural and reasonable of all demands 
conceivable, that he who is about to have a part in the operations of 
government, should in his heart be firmly attached to that govern- 
ment. Less than this condition, is an abrogation of all conditions. 
If a man be ready to bind himself, it is presumable that his attach- 
ment is beyond question for the object w r ith which he desires to make 
the eno-airement. And to attach one's self to a cause, instead of a 
mere interest, — a cause the most holy and lofty of all that absorb 
the thoughts or exercise the emotions of the human race, because it is 
co-ordinate and co-equal with the great truths of Christianity itself, — 
is properly indicative of enthusiasm. It is an open confession that . 
the generous impulses outrun the slower movements of calculative 
reflection, and that the man has grown energetic in behalf of that 
cause, rather through the quickening warmth of his irresistible cou- 
victions, than through the calmer and steadier influence of reasonings 
which he cannot put aside. 

In the next place, all voters should possess at least a fair share of 
general intelligence — enough, certainly, to enable them to distinguish 
the difference between the American and other forms of government, 
and to know the uses and meaning of law, the general rights of indi- 
viduals, the Bacredness of life and property, and the ordinary object 
and scope of free institutions. Such men are not naturally to be 
looked for among the masses of those who are not ye< able to read 
and write, nor do they abound in quarters where the controlling in- 
fluences are anti-American, Jesuitical, and dangerous to liberty. The 
very object of freedom, we know, is to elevate the character of the 



WHAT CONSTITUTES THE EIGHT TO VOTE? 257 

masses ; yet the necessity is absolute that there should be some de- 
gree of elevation with which to begin the experiment. 

If it be admitted that intelligence and ignorance alike are to be in- 
corporated into the system of our institutions, it requires no prophet's 
eye to see that those institutions must, in a fearfully brief space of 
time, become changed in their character. They are capable of ele- 
vating men from the degradations of ignorance, if allowed the influ- 
ence that was inherent in them at their establishment ; but, in an 
altered condition, they may become the most powerful engines of 
licentiousness and misrule, by which ignorant and vicious men permit 
themselves to be moved. 

A certain standard of general intelligence ought to be demanded by 
the popular voice for those who aspire to the privileges and power of 
electorship. The danger of laxity here is plain to the most superficial 
observer. It is only tearing away the ordinary safeguards of freedom, 
opening a road for the aggressions of depravity, paying premiums for 
the perpetual presence of anxiety and fear, and sufTering the general 
interests and welfare to relapse into the unfathomable depths of deg- 
radation. There can be no laxity, with safety, in a state of actual 
freedom. Vigilance is the corner-stone of the whole fabric. 

And, lastly, the participator in a free government, like that of Amer- 
ica, ought to have some definite understanding of the true aims, and 
the extended influence of the system under which he lives. It is in- 
cumbent on him, as a valuable citizen, that he know, not simply the 
theory of that system, but something, also, of its lofty purposes, its 
far-reaching influences, and its marvellous power in the great work 
of regenerating and exalting the human race. If, in such a knowl- 
edge as this he has no deficiency, he is secretly conscious that he has 
risen by progressive steps, from being a mere observer of disconnected 
facts, to the higher conditions of a true philosopher. 

A familiar understanding of these purposes is what eveiy American 
should possess. He ought to know that a free government exists for 
some other end than simply what is to be found centering in itself; 
that its proper aims can never be selfish, and never limit themselves 



253 A VOICE TO AMERICA. 

to the elevation of a few over the many ; that it has for its scope the 
welfare of every citizen, however degraded and however humble, with- 
in its territorial boundaries ; that its object is purely the elevation of 
the masses, who, in turn, must reflect their character and its varied 
influences upon its name and institutions ; that the perpetuation of 
truth, and not of falsehood, is the natural result of its manifold op- 
erations; and that its works will not cease from their living and 
spreading influence, till that influence shall have made the peaceful 
circuit of the world. 

These are grand objects to attain, and must excite both the admira- 
tion and enthusiasm of all who possess the capacity to comprehend 
them. And if they belong, of such a plain necessity, to the govern- 
ment that has true freedom for its permanent foundation, what a 
weighty responsibility attaches to every individual who is permitted 
a share in the transactions of that government ! How earnest ought 
all to appear in hastening forward purposes which are fraught with 
such beatific consequences to the whole human race ! What a neces- 
sity rests on all citizens alike, to see that these grand aims are not 
perverted by either the ignorance or wilfulness of any, who seek to 
be admitted to the same free privileges with themselve- ! 

That the true worth of the electoral franchise too often suffers from 
degrading uses, it is impossible to deny. Proof of it is offered us on 
every side. It is bestowed where it should have been withheld : it 
courts the acceptance of the incompetent, instead of demanding that 
they first qualify themselves for being invested with its inestimable 
gifts: it is losing its character for dignity, by being literally thrust 
upon men in no wise fitted for the performance of any of its func- 
tions. 

The high characteristics of citizenship must manifestly relax their 
claims to general respect, when ignorant foreign immigrants are 
made voters before they can so much as understand their relations to 
the laws or to the people al large. We are undeniably going back- 
wards, when we admit men to be electors, who cannot distinguish be- 
tween a blind and sullen obedience to statutes, and an active and 



WHAT CONSTITUTES THE RIGHT TO VOTE? 259 

intelligent co-operation with the principles on which proper restrictive 
enactments are founded. It is a dangerous policy to make voters of 
men who think that freedom from European servility should be 
marked by an irresponsible delirium of license here. It degrades the 
general standard to which the condition of electorship should aspire 
to hold itself fixed. Such men grow suddenly exhilarated in the free 
atmosphere into which they have come, and contract exaggerated 
ideas of liberty, that are never borne out by the reality of their sub- 
sequent experience. Demagogues flatter these naturalized voters, 
and they are delighted ; — if, afterwards, honest men should tell them 
the truth, they could neither endure them, nor the institutions in whose 
name they profess to speak. 

In itself considered, and setting aside these multiplied abuses to 
which so priceless a gift as the electoral franchise is subjected, Amer- 
ican Citizenship is invested with a dignity that transcends in intrinsic 
importance, any and all the titles that foreign courts have it in their 
power to bestow ; there is, in reality, no condition that may success- 
fully claim to be its equal. 

From the citizen, in his individual character, emanate influences 
that reach alike the government and the world. By his power, is 
circumscribed the welfare of associated masses and multitudes. He 
feels the glory and the shame of his country, for that country has the 
sources of its existence in him ; he stands the immediate representative 
of the government and the citizen, and happily illustrates the nicely 
adjusted relationship of each to the other. 

By the very name Citizen is fairly implied both honor and hon- 
esty, purity and morality. He should fear only what is wrong, and 
aspire to nothing but what is right. He must be impressed with the 
number and magnitude of his responsibilities, feeling the weight of 
the trusts he has received, both from his country and from God. He 
cannot fail to see that his own free system of government, that de- 
grades none, but seeks to exalt all alike, is the light and illumination 
of the world ; that it most truly represents the cause of freedom and 
equal rights ; that it abnegates selfishness, and has within the reach 



260 A VOICE TO AMERICA. 

of its influence the welfare of the entire human race. He must be 
deeply impressed with the greatness of his mission, knowing it to be the 
mission of the government in which he is an active participant. His 
reflections can be in no manner allied to levity, for they must tell him 
perpetually of a work, whose mighty results are to be carried steadily 
forward to the end of coming time. 

as? 



FALLACY OF SUPPOSING THAT AMERICAN INSTITU- 
TIONS NEED NO SAFEGUARDS. 

"Eternal vigilance is the price of liberty." 

It appears to be an almost universal truth, that those who are in 
possession of the full desire of their hearts, betray extreme careless- 
ness in securing for that possession an adequate protection. A severe 
experience seems needed to discipline men into habits of prudence, 
self-control, and precautionary foresight. Any advantage, if not ac- 
quired by .personal sacrifice, generally fails to carry with it those im- 
pressive lessons of discreetness which are the surest securities against 
either its invasion or decay. 

Americans of the present generation have been peculiarly liberal in 
relation to their political privileges. Holding them in a measure 
cheap, because so easily attained, they have hitherto failed to see the 
need of dispensing them to others with a prudent hand, or of hedging 
them about with such restrictions as would place them out of reach 
of questionable influences. Liberty has a tendency to make men's 
heart's large and generous, and to give the utmost latitude to thought. 
With a practical knowledge of the manifold blessings of freedom in- 
grained in their very natures, it is hardly possible for them to desire 
less ample endowments for those whom they find deprived of them 
altogether. 

The actual aim of our free institutions is universal brotherhood. 
Whether acknowledged or not as the purpose of our political organi- 
zation, this, nevertheless, is the vital spirit that imparts all power and 
energy. And yet it is not to be argued as a consequence of this 

12* 



262 A VOICE TO AMERICA. 

truth, that so grand an attainment will be reached any the sooner, or 
that its blessings will be secured in any greater degree, by laxity in 
the caie of these institutions, and a mistaken generosity in extending 
the power of directing their operation. By indifference of this sort, 
their character must suffer degradation ; and when that result is 
reached, the true end of their existence is perverted, if not entirely 
destroyed. Free gifts are assuredly evidences of large possessions ; 
and multiplied acts of generosity are proofs of deep sympathy with 
those who are so unfortunate as to be destitute. But there are 
always limits to such deeds, beyond which they cease to be bene- 
ficial, and become meafis of injury or mischief. 

If absolutism feels the necessity of protecting itself against the 
inroads of men who deny the lawfulness of its claims, how much 
more sensibly must that necessity be felt by the friends and supporters 
of constitutional freedom. The former fears conspiracies, machina- 
tions, and the outbursts of rebellion. The latter have to guard con- 
tinually against indifference to privileges, — an indifference which 
soon is followed by licentiousness and riot, — eventually leading to a 
tyranny far more fearful than that of any one-man power. Libeity 
is apt to be careless, from its very inclination to generosity. Unspar- 
ing in favors to all, it dreams not of ingratitude from its recipients. 
The law seems to be entirely in its own favor, removing all those 
sources of anxiety in which absolutism is so prolific; and yet other 
causes of fear are known to spring up plentifully under a certain 
complication of circumstances, which nothing but the utmost pru- 
dence and firmness can hope to remove. 

There is nothing that Americans should guard with so watchful an 
eye as their country's liberty. They cannot be too jealous in its care. 
They cannot hope to enjoy freedom and slothfulness together. Lib- 
erty has its own unchangeable price, which is vigilance unceasing. 
It is good to dilate on the blessings of freedom, but the reflections 
are idle and the words are empty harangues, when freedom has no 
sentinels on its farthest outposts, and careless defenders in its citadel. 
If they who hold priceless possessions are indifferent to their preser- 



NECESSITY OF INSTITUTIONAL SAFEGUARDS. 263 

vation, where shall men be found to volunteer protection for that upon 
which they set, as yet, no value ? If the free are not watchful, how 
can we hope to find a guardian for liberty among the oppressed ? 

None ought to be so capable of understanding what freedom is 
worth, as those to whom its riches have fallen by inheritance. A 
proper estimate of its value is not to be expected from others. To 
them it is still an unreal speculation — a dim and far-off vision. They 
have heard, perhaps, of its reality, and come to settle their calm con- 
victions upon its truth. Still, it is practically unknown to them, and 
from it they have never been able to derive any personal advantage. 
But Americans have no excuse to plead for their ignorance. Under 
' the protection of free and constitutional laws they are secured in the 
possession of both life and liberty. Themselves the original power 
in the State, they impart character and direction to all the operations 
of government. Holding certain inalienable rights, they are free to 
attain happiness after their own desires. All pursuits, of a proper 
character, lie wide open to their ambition in every direction ; and 
they may boast that theirs is the noblest country and the freest 
nation on the face of the earth. 

There are, therefore, no reasons why such large privileges should 
ever suffer from diminution. If they unfortunately do, the fault lies 
at the door of those who should have been their most ardent chain- 
Dions. They must rehearse their misfortunes to none but their own 
ears, and brood in silence over the loss that might have been turned 
to their immeasurable gain. 

Facts are imposing authorities in the disposition of theories and 
suppositions. Nothing is better calculated to open the eyes of the 
blind, or to unstop the ears of the deaf, than these most stubborn and 
irresistible things. Upon them, all reasoning is based ; and from 
them logical conclusions are unerringly deduced. From them alone 
we are able to understand the real position, both of our free institutions 
aud the dangers by which these are surrounded. They will tell us the 
plainest truths of our national welfare, and enable us, better than all 
else, to comprehend the chart by which our national course is guided. 



264 A VOICE TO AMERICA. 

In dealing with this subject, we do not propose to enter very 
deeply into statistics, yet it may be well to illustrate the points to 
which we wish to call general attention. We desire to establish 
three distinct statements ; and from their tenor may be inferred the 
particular dangers to which our free institutions are at this day most 
threateningly exposed : 

I. The foreign voters, who are proved to be ignorant and in every 
way incompetent, are admitted to the enjoyment of the electoral 
franchise. 

We, who never knew what a blind and passive obedience to law 
is, can form no adequate idea of the recklessness and delirium which 
seize hold of so many foreign immigrants the moment they put foot 
upon our shores. We admit that some of them are men of intel- 
lectual culture, while it will not be denied that too many are persons 
of the most degraded character, and destitute even of the most meager 
attainments. The ignorance, however, from which Americans experi- 
ence the greatest cause for distrust, is that which relates to the nature 
and spirit of republican institutions. These they do not seem either 
able or inclined to comprehend. They scout all ideas of obedience, 
because they claim that here they are free. Liberty and lawlessness 
are with them one and the same thing. Hitherto, they have never 
borne any intelligent relation to the existence or execution of law, 
but have occupied the places of unreflecting persons, accustomed, in 
passive silence, to bear the burdens with which they were weighed 
down. Coming to a country like America, and hearing the most 
exaggerated and extravagant stories of its ample freedom for all men, 
without a thought of their responsibility to the nation sustaining the 
fabric of this glorious freedom, they conclude that here the field of 
license lies open, and that any sort of restraint is powerless and ille- 
gal against unbounded indulgence. 

Heretofore, all their feelings have been marshalled against govern- 
ment ; for it was established upon their oppression, and never exercised 
its functions for their interests or welfare. They have lost that high 
and self-reliant sense of manhood, under its operation, which gives to 



NECESSITY OF INSTITUTIONAL SAFEGUARDS. 265 

men the clearest ideas of true freedom, and enables them to under- 
stand their relation to freedom. The result naturally follows, that 
these same feelings of antagonism to government and law are brought 
with them to the land which they have chosen as their future home. 
They breathe the same spirit of hostility as before, to whatever has a 
tendency to impose upon their careless action a healthy restraint. 
Not comprehending the meaning of self-government, they know 
nothing of the spirit of conservatism by which our free system is 
upheld, and are ready to enter with recklessness upon any changes 
Svhich demagogues hold out as beneficial. 

Lacking religious sentiment of any description, they become the 
easiest dupes, as they are the most dangerous fanatics. They are ever 
ready for change, nay, for revolution, rather than continue in peaceful 
quiet, obedient to law, and evenly pursuing their own highest inter- 
ests. As are their sympathies in the lands of their birth, so are they 
here : as are their hatreds there, so do they betray themselves here. 
All ideas of law are confounded with mere physical force, and they 
have no definite conception whatever of the true aim of legal enact- 
ments. 

Such are the people flocking to our shores by tens of thousands, 
and admitted, even welcomed, to the privileges of citizenship. The 
direct tendency of such an addition to our roll of voters, is the unmis- 
takable degradation of the electoral franchise. Such gross ignorance 
could produce no other result. We have a large proportion of such 
voters in the country, answerable for the operation of our political in- 
stitutions, and directly concerned in the character of their influence, 
both at home and abroad. 

In 1832, at the time of the Presidential election, there were sup- 
posed to be fifteen thousand foreign voters in America ; in 1840, they 
were computed at fifty-four thousand, comprising one forty sixth of 
the whole number of electors; while in 1852, the foreign vote was 
known with accuracy to be one hundred and eighty-eight thousand, 
or had risen to one-seventeenth of the electoral body. In other words, 
the foreign vote had nearly multiplied itself by twelve, since 1840, 



266 A VOICE TO AMERICA. 

while the aggregate vote of the country has not multiplied itself by 
three ! The moral lies in the figures. 

During the past five years, it is calculated there has been a steady 
immigration at the rate of three hundred thousand persons a year, or 
about one thousand per day ! Out of each thousand, it is safe to con- 
sider at least one hundred and fifty to be voters. The great mass of 
these men is composed of all the ignorance, poverty, lawlessness, and 
general degradation, that could be induced to emigrate to America. 
They come to the ballot-boxes side by side with those who have beeu 
bred from their youth to a perfect familiarity with and respect for free 
institutions, and are too often found ready to become the servile tools 
of demagogues, even more reckless and unprincipled than themselves. 
These are the men we permit to help fashion our laws, give tone 
to general society, infuse energy into the spirit of our political organ- 
izations, and protect us and all our dearest interests from destruction 
or decay. With no knowledge of our Constitution, they never inter- 
est themselves to understand its meaning. They do not comprehend 
what is the scope of law, nor are they conscious of the existence of 
any check or responsibility that may hold them to its observance. 

It is time this threatening danger be averted. The evil increases 
by continuance, and daily becomes more and more difficult of rem- 
edy. Unless efficient and timely safeguards are interposed by the 
vigilant watchmen of freedom, it will have acquired an imposing mag- 
nitude, capable of overawing the most energetic efforts for its subju- 
gation. 

II. Our institutions are alarmingly menaced, by the aggressions of 
the Romish priesthood. 

We are well aware that much has been said on this subject ; but with 
the practices and professions of that priesthood before our eyes, we in- 
sist that it is impossible to warn the people of America too frequently 
against the art- by which their liberties are sought to be subverted. 
It is not for Americans to raise the rallying cry o\' persecution. Every 
religious body should be left free to the enjoyment of its own worship, 
and the publication of its own creeds. I'm-haritableness belongs not 



NECESSITY OF INSTITUTIONAL SAFEGUARDS. 267 

to the spirit of our system. Interference with the convictions of con- 
science, is sternly forbidden by the whole history and tenor of our 
political customs. 

But when religion forgets the holy cause of its mission, and, in the 
name of designing men, is inoculated with selfishness and ambition, 
and a spirit of arbitrariness in direct conflict with freedom, both of 
conduct and conscience — when it lays off the unsoiled robes of peace 
in which it has been clad, and girds on the sword in order to wage 
worldly conflicts — it seems then as if, with its own pure character, it 
had divested itself of its former claims to our reverence, and entered 
the field with all the greedy desires, deceits, artifices, and hot passions, 
that disfigure the character of man. 

If the devotees of the religion of Christ once give over the single- 
ness of their calling for the sake of compassing ends which are purely 
ambitious and worldly, they deserve to be met with the prompt re- 
buke that such conduct so richly merits. No reproofs can be too 
severe for their hypocritical practices. No opposition can be too un- 
bending for their attempted usurpations. They are to be checked at 
the outset in a career that promises nothing but danger to the free 
government that affords them its indulgent protection. 

That there are truly and devotedly pious members of the Romish 
priesthood in America, we shall not take it upon ourselves to deny ; 
still their zeal burns only for the Church, whose faithful servants they 
are, while the tenets and practices of that Church are undeviatingly 
hostile to freedom. These facts are well supported. The professions 
of the temporal head of that Church are openly at war with free in- 
stitutions. His words are swift witnesses of his hostility to any polit- 
ical system that secures liberty of conscience to the worshipper. He 
insists that the Church, and the Romish Church alone, is the source 
of all temporal as well as spiritual authority, and that to its tyranni- 
cal behests and decrees the State should bow in silent submission. In 
America, the people form the State ; and hence the people must be 
brought beneath a yoke that takes away every thing like individual 
freedom, and offers in return nothing but the most degrading servility. 



9^8 A VOICE TO AMERICA. 

On such conditions, no free State could ever hope to stand. Its 
history would pass out of the light, into a darkness that would en- 
shroud it from the eyes of the world, forever. The rock on which it 
stranded would always be marked, but, in the wide waste of the 
seas no fragments of the noble structure would afterwards be found. 
It would be ingulfed in a vast whirlpool, that never gives back to 
the eye any tokens of the ruins with which its voracious appetite is 
gorged. 

It would be easy to extend beyond the limits of our work, exam- 
ples of this hostility of the Romish Church to liberty ; volumes of 
confessions might be collected from the lips and pens of both priests 
and press, all going to establish beyond question their undying haired 
to the freedom of the individual. The great writer and defender of 
Romish doctrines in this country, in his Review, frankly confesses as 
follows : 

" I never think of publishing any thing in regard to the Church, 
without submitting my articles to the Bishop for inspection, approval, 
and endorsement." x\nd after this important admission, he declares 
(with the Bishop's authority, of course,) that " Protestantism of every 
form has not, and never can have, any rights where Catholicity is tri- 
umphant."* 

1 >aniel O'Connell, in one of his speeches in parliament, gives like 
testimony: "I declare my most unequivocal submission to the head 
of the Church, and to the hierarchy in its different orders. If the 
Bishops make a declaration on this bill, I never -would be heard speak- 
ing against it, but would submit at once, unequivocally, to that deci- 
sion. They have only to decide, and they also close my mouth ; they 
have only to determine, and I obey. I wish it to be understood that 
such is the duty of the Catholics."\ 

* Brownson's Review. 

f Spotskiyskay, recently a Romish priest, officiating in Paterson, was de- 
nounced as a heretic, and excommunicated by Bishop Hughes, <>r New York 
city, because be went to bear a Protestant minister lecture on Popery, a thing 
the priest declares he could do in Poland without censure, "but could not do 
it In this land of liberty without expulsion from his Church." 



NECESSITY OF INSTITUTIONAL SAFEGUAEDS. 269 

By this kind of evidence of the proscription of all kinds of indi- 
vidual liberty in the individual, the spirit of animosity to American 
institutions, that directs the action of Romish priests, is laid open to 
public inspection. It is bitter and deadly in its operation, to the last 
conceivable limit. It affects to be quiet, when quiet is for its interest, 
yet never hesitates to trample ruthlessly on all law, and all liberty, 
when its increased power permits it so to do with impunity. By a 
process of astonishing accretion, it builds up a power within the State, 
the ostensible purposes of which are to overshadow every combina- 
tion of opposing influence, and to subvert and defy all the forces of 
the civil government. It demands of its votaries a pledge totally 
vitiating their solemn oaths as freemen, and offers their united politi- 
cal influence to that party which shall show itself most supple to its 
insinuating address. 

Against such a power there is great need that Americans should 
secure proper protection. Whether it seek to effect its objects by 
fraud or force, by stratagem or violence, it should be resisted in sea- 
son, and resisted energetically to the end. The existence of such a 
power, aiming to reach political advantage under the professions of 
devotion to religion, is both alarming in its tendencies, and incompat- 
ible with the spirit and character of free institutions. 

III. We stand in great danger of losing our liberties, from a growing 
indifference to the exercise of our own rights as voters at the polls. 

In itself considered, this point is not strictly to be regarded as of 
an aggressive nature ; but when viewed in connection with the other 
two, it assumes a magnitude and importance calculated to arrest the 
attention of the most careless and unreflecting. It implies a state of 
things within, in perfect co-operation with the dangerous designs from 
without ; a previous preparation, that promises more certain success 
to the destructive plans by which republican liberty is besieged. 

It is not necessary to our present purpose, to speculate on the 
causes of such supreme indifference, on the part of freemen, to the 
safety of their high privileges ; enough that a truth so melancholy is 
forced on our attention. The fact is palpably plain. The results 



270 A VOICE TO AMERICA. 

betray themselves on all sides — in an inferior grade of public func- 
tionaries ; in the impudent presumptions of demagogism ; in the 
greater abundance of examples of intrigue ; and in the general dete- 
rioration of that healthy influence which properly belongs to a nation 
of intelligent freemen. 

Many of the best men of America refuse to go to the polls, while 
the worst never fail to avail themselves of their privilege. It is im- 
possible that this should long remain so, without a gradual change, 
for the worse, in the character of our government. What is most 
needed at the polls, is the constant expression of the opinion and will 
of the discreet and temperate portion of the community. It is only 
upon the sentiments of the more intelligent and sober citizens, that a 
republic like ours can hope to build a reputation for extended useful- 
ness ; or a renown that will bear its name, like a blessing, to every 
quarter of the habitable globe. Their common country has a right 
to demand their most zealous services in her behalf. She appeals to 
them in the name of that ample protection which her laws afford ; 
she warns them by considerations of fear, of comfort, of happiness, 
and of obedience to their sincerest convictions of duty. If they give, 
over their efforts on her behalf, what will all other efforts be worth ? 
If they are careless of the safety of her noble institutions, to whom 
can she look with the hope of ever finding for them either advocates 
or dt 'fenders? 

We do not claim that the complete vote of our more intelligent 
citizens would be capable of paralyzing the force of that ignorance 
which has of late years been making such astounding progress at the 
ballot-box. We would not venture, as yet, to hope as much ; but the 
influence of that vote would give an impulse to the cause of enlight- 
ened freedom, such as has not been felt since the days iA' the heroic 
founders of the Republic. It would awaken loftier resolves in the 
breasts of many who now hut help to confirm the secret decrees of 
demaerofirism. It would inspire the masses with more noble senti- 
ments respecting liberty, with the wand of whose living- spirit they 
have hardly yet been touched. It would shake off drowsiness and 



NECESSITY OF INSTITUTIONAL SAFEGUARDS. 271 

indifference to matters of the highest concern. It would put the 
plotting enemies of freedom to rout, and her guilty and silent betray- 
ers to shame. It would work a mighty miracle of renovation in all 
branches of government — in its character, in its policy, in its influ- 
ence, and in its world-wide reputation. 

Unless the better class of citizens do step forward with alacrity, to 
preserve our institutions from the fearful evils to which their supine- 
ness may expose them, there can remain but little hope for us in the 
future as a nation of intelligent freemen. Unless they interest them- 
selves individually in all the elections, from those of the highest 
importance down to those of the lowest, it may not be long before 
their interference may come very sadly too late. They should see 
for themselves, what are the fearful penalties of supineness in the 
cause of their own liberties. They should understand what a crime 
they are guilty of, when, in disgust with the low party tactics of the 
day, they relinquish their right to trample the obnoxious system 
under foot. They must be made to feel that safety was never yet 
known to be found in inaction ; that it is intelligence and virtue alone 
that can preserve the State ; that the ballot-box — so powerful both 
for good and for harm — carries within itself the most effectual rem- 
edy for all evils ; and that if they cease to wage perpetual warfare 
against tyranny, ignorance, and usurpation, there will remain to them 
but a share in that general misfortune, of which they have been the 
equally guilty authors, and in which they must abide as silent and 
uncomplaining sufferers. 

It behooves the American people to make seasonable provision 
against their external dangers and internal fears. Every human 
heart beating quick at the name of Freedom, calls on us to guard 
with sleepless vigilance the high trust that is committed to our 
hands. Untold generations, in the far-off future, implore us to relax 
no effort, and to forego no exertion, in order to secure its priceless 
blessings to the people of all coming time. 



THE NATURALIZATION LAWS OF THE UNITED STATES. 

" Then the chief captain came and said unto him, ' Tell me, art thou a Roman V He said, ' Yea.' 
And the chief captain answered, ' With a great sum obtained I this freedom ;' and Paul said, ' But I 

WAS FREE BORN.' " — ST. PAUL. 

It is clearly necessary, in order to the preservation of the laws and 
institutions of every country, that its own citizens, who love and obey 
those laws, should reserve to themselves the exclusive power of modify- 
ing them. If, however, they choose, they may of course admit to the 
participation in that privilege, any persons born and educated in for- 
eign lands. The obvious condition of such admission is the possession 
of such qualifications for citizenship as are required of the natives ; 
namely, a good moral character, a certain amount of habituation 
to the laws of the land, and such a love and respect for those laws as 
will make the new-comer a citizen not in form only, but in heart and 
soul ; not merely a receiver of favors from the country of his adop- 
tion, but a true and faithful adopted son. 

In monarchies, where the mass of the people have no influence upon 
the conduct of the home or foreign affairs of the nation, there is often 
no mode of admitting aliens to full citizenship ; and wherever there is 
such a mode, it is tedious and formal. Even in England, the freest 
of European governments, an alien can only be naturalized by a 
special act of Parliament in his favor. 

The United States of America, on the contrary, as if with a benev- 
olent, generous trust in the good-will of the human race, has ever 
extended the right hand of fellowship to all the world, and has opened 
the doors of her temple of freedom to all comers, with a liberality 
wholly without precedent or parallel. The only delay necessaiy, before 
admission to the enjoyment of all the privileges of our intelligent and 



274 A VOICE TO AMERICA. 

educated native freemen, is that of a five years' residence ; the only- 
forms are the reasonable declaration of intentions of naturalization, 
the obviously indispensable one of abjuring all foreign allegiance, and 
swearing to be a faithful citizen of this country. 

We proceed to give a careful analysis of the Naturalization Lavs 
of the United States, and also of the several States. There is no 
Constitutional guarantee to aliens of any right to naturalization, al- 
though such an impression extensively prevails. The Constitution 
only says, that Congress may establish a uniform rule of naturaliza- 
tion. It is, therefore, of course, entirely practicable to refuse, if we 
please, the privilege of citizenship to aliens on any terms, and thus 
to confine their political capacities within the United States to the 
exercise of such rights of State citizenship as the several States may 
choose to give them. But, as has been before remarked, a contrary 
and very expansively liberal policy has uniformly prevailed in this 
respect. 

The first Naturalization Act for the United States was approved in 
1*790 ; and was so liberal in character, as to show the desire then pre- 
vailing to attract population to our unsettled territories. It demanded, 
for admission to citizenship, proof before any court of record (that is, 
any court having a clerk and official seal), of good character, and of 
residence in the United States during two years preceding the appli- 
cation, and residence in the State where it was made during one year 
so preceding. In 1795, however, a more stringent law was passed, 
requiring, " the usual oaths," proof of good character, a declaration 
of intentions three years in advance of admission, five years' resi- 
dence in the country, and one year in the State, and also, that the 
applicant is " attached to the principles of the Constitution of the 
United States, and well disposed to the good order and happiness of 
the same." In 1798, the terms of residence were again lengthened to 
fourteen years in the country, and five years in the State, and the 
intention of naturalization was required five years in advance; be- 
sides that, the forms of record of admission were made more expan- 
sive and full, various registrations required, and naturalization was 



THE NATURALIZATION LAWS. 275 

refused to citizens and natives of nations at war with the United 
States. 

In 1802, an act establishing rules for naturalization was passed, 
which has been so little modified that the law, as substantially in 
force from that time to this, may be stated together, as in force at 
present. The alien, then, who now desires to become a citizen of the 
United States, must appear before a State common law court of record, 
or a circuit or district court of the United States, or the clerk of one 
of those courts, at least two years (since 1824, from 1802 to 1824, 
three years) before admission to citizenship. There he must swear or 
affirm, that he honestly intends to become a citizen of the United 
States, and. to renounce all allegiance to any other sovereignty. 

This preliminary having been performed, the applicant must, at the 
end of the two years, take the oath or affirmation so promised ; and these 
proceedings are entered by the clerk upon the records of the court. 
The applicant must also prove, before his naturalization, to the satis- 
faction of the court, that he has resided in the United States at least 
five years, and in the State where the court is held at least one year ; 
and that during that time he has behaved like a man of good moral 
character, attached to the principles of the Constitution of the United 
States, and well disposed to the good order and happiness of the 
same. Residence must be proved by the oaths or affirmations of 
two citizens of the United States ; the oath of the applicant being 
inadmissible. He must, if he has borne any title or belonged to any 
order of nobility, renounce it, and the renunciation is to be recorded. 
No applicants from any country at war with the United States are 
admissible. Minor aliens, residing here three years next before their 
coming of age, and continuing to reside here after that time, are ad- 
missible without the previous declaration of intention, on compliance 
with the other provisions of the law. Aliens resident here before 
1812, and sufficiently proving that fact, and also continued subse- 
quent residence up to application, are also admissible without declara- 
tion of intentions. Widows and children of persons having made 
declaration of intentions, and having died before naturalization, are 



276 A VOICE TO AMERICA. 

considered citizens upon taking the oaths prescribed by law ; as also 
are minor children of naturalized persons, if dwelling within the 
United States ; persons bora without the limits of the United States, 
whose fathers were citizens at the time of their birth ; and women 
legally capable of naturalization, married to citizens of the United 
States. 

In only two of the States, Indiana and Wisconsin, does there ap- 
pear to be any express and separate provision for the admission of 
aliens to State citizenship. In these States, aliens twenty-one years 
old, having declared their intention of becoming citizens of the United 
States, and having, in Indiana, a residence of one year in the country, 
and six months in the State, may become voters. In the remainder 
of the States, it is merely provided that those seeking to become 
voters shall, besides occasional property and other qualifications, have 
been citizens of the United States, or of the State where the applica- 
tion is made, for terms varying from the instant of their arrival, as in 
Utah and Wisconsin, and ten days in New York, to two years. Very 
generally, it may be said that in five years from entering the country, 
any foreigner may be a voting citizen of the United States. 

Naturalization, as we already have stated by implication, is not a 
right vested in foreigners. No man coming to our shores from abroad, 
has any natural indefeasible title to the exercise of the voting power, 
any more than he has to draw a thousand dollars out of one of our 
banks to get a start in business. It is a privilege conferred, not a 
right conceded. Accordingly, the Constitution, giving Congress, if it 
chooses, the power to establish naturalization laws, says nothing of 
aliens, except what is restrictive. It forbids aliens from being Tres 1 
ident or Vice-President. It requires a long citizenship for members 
of Congress. 

The danger to be apprehended from carelessness in this partic- 
ular, has been foreseen by our best men. The following extract from 
the writings of Thomas Jefferson, one of the wisest and most far- 
seeing of the great men who have influenced the politics of our coun- 
try, fully sustains the views here taken of the essential significance of 



THE NATURALIZATION LAWS. 277 

naturalization laws, and of the dangers to our country, from laxity in 
making or administering them. He says: "But are there no incon- 
veniences to be thrown into the scale against the advantages expected 
from a multiplication of numbers by the importation of foreigners ? 
It is for the happiness of those united in society to harmonize as much 
as possible in matters, which they must of necessity transact together. 
Civil government being the sole object of forming societies, its admin- 
istration must be conducted by common consent. Every species of 
government has its specific principles. Ours, perhaps, are more pecu- 
liar than those of any other in the universe. It is a composition of 
the freest principles in the English Constitution, with others derived 
from natural reason. To these nothing can be more opposed than 
the maxims of absolute monarchies. Yet from such we are to expect 
the greatest number of emigrants. They will bring with them the 
principles of the governments they leave, imbibed in their early youth ; 
or, if able to throw them off, it will be in exchange for an unbounded 
licentiousness, passing, as is usual, from one extreme to the other. It 
would be a miracle were they to stop precisely at the point of tem- 
perate liberty. These principles, with their language, they will trans- 
mit to their children. In proportion to their numbers, they will share 
with us the legislation. They will infuse into it their spirit, warp and 
bias its directions, and render it a heterogeneous, incoherent, distracted 
mass." 

Have not these predictions been fulfilled ? Have we not already 
amongst us an Irish nationality, a German nationality, a French na- 
tionality, a Dutch nationality, an Italian nationality ? Has not our 
legislation already been " warped and biased" by their influence ? 
Have they not already, to a great extent, " infused their spirit" into 
it, and are they not trying to make the infusion stronger ? 

The right and duty of government, enjoyed by the free citizens 

of the United States, and by them now granted to aliens at the 

rate of nearly one hundred thousand a year, is one of the most 

weighty responsibilities imposed upon man. This grave and lofty 

power, the citizens of the United States have usually shown them- 

13 



278 A VOICE TO AMERICA. 

selves well able to appreciate and to use. But whether they have 
done wisely in granting to aliens such free admission to their birth- 
right privilege, may well be doubted. The citizenship of this coun- 
try should only be conferred upon those who will become useful and 
reputable citizens. Such was iu fact the design of those who enacted 
our naturalization laws. It was not intended to permit our glorious 
and free institutions, to be altered at the ignorant pleasure of men 
brought up under monarchies, and drilled out of self-control. It was 
intended to admit only those who would make good citizens, and no 
others; and to admit them on proof of their fitness: five years' resi- 
dence has hitherto been deemed sufficient, and ceitain testimony to 
good behavior and attachment to Republican principles. 

1. The defects of our present naturalization laws. 

The term of five years, with honorable exceptions, is not sufficient 
to prepare a foreigner to assist in governing this country. The mass 
of emigrants are from the lower classes of the European populations. 
To the limited natural powers and low grade of moral and mental 
nature, which are the results of the depressed physical and social con- 
dition of their ancestors for so many generations, they add the un- 
happy results of a political education, expressly contrived to unfit 
them for the exercise of such rights as those of our citizens. They 
are kepi from thinking, discussing, or acting. The attempt to do 
either of these things is punished as sedition — rebellion — treason. 
So, what is here a right and a duty, is there a crime. Moreover, they 
learn to hate a law which always forces them from without, and 
rejoice in the only liberty they can conceive of, which is riot and 
licentiousness. Coming here, then, not only with the need of learning 
to be wise freemen, but of unlearning early education, and that most 
often at an age past the easily moulded character of childhood — 
when the strength and fixity of adult age has hardened their preju- 
dices and increased their obstinacy ; — coming here under such a 
double and triple disqualification, is it to be supposed that in five 
years of the life which they lead here, they can understand our insti- 
tutions sufficient to make their political intelligence and trustworth- 



THE NATURALIZATION LAWS. 279 

iness equal to that of Americans bom and educated ? If the plain 
statement of such a case as this is not proof enough, no arguments 
could avail. Without inquiring what term of years is sufficient for 
the purpose of training aliens to American freedom, it is at least per- 
fectly clear that a longer term should be required than the present 

one. 

The present naturalization law confides to clerks of courts — insig- 
nificant assistant officers ; men unknown and irresponsible — the 
important duty of judging upon the fitness of candidates for citizen- 
ship. As the law now reads, all the forms of admission may be 
complied with, either before one of the proper courts, or before the 
clerk of one of them. It is not well that such vitally important trusts 
should be confined to such subordinate officials. They are too much 
tempted to dispatch the business for the sake of the fee, and to admit 
the voter, for the same purpose, without sufficient scrutiny of him or 
his qualifications. 

2. Loose modes of administering the laio. 

The merest apparent formal compliance with the statutory require- 
ments has, for a long time, been quite sufficient to secure citizen- 
ship to the applicant. Few persons need to be reminded how rife 
are cases of fraudulent admission, in violation even of the residence 
clause of the law. Impudence and false swearing by the claimant, 
and frequently a guilty complicity, or at least a guilty sufferance on 
the part of the admitting authority, have availed to admit thousands 
on thousands of aliens to the full exercise of the rights of citi- 
zenship within a year — nay, of a month — after their arrival on our 
shores. However satisfactory the usual proof of residence and char- 
acter may be to clerks of courts, who are intent upon their fees, or 
securing votes for a coming election, it is perfectly certain that, in 
very many cases, this proof is such as would be entirely unsatisfac- 
tory to a judge, if offered in court, in regular course of law. Nor 
is the inquiry usually conducted with the care and seriousness which 
its importance demands. If there be ever any value in forms, it 
is when they are used to impress upon weak or ignorant minds, 



280 A VOICE TO AMERICA. 

the weight of a great truth, or the importance of a solemn duty. 
The hasty and careless performance of a ceremony, whose hurried 
administration commonly turns it into mere rigmarole, is not a safe 
or decent mode of creating citizens for a great republican empire. 
It degrades and cheapens our national privileges in our own eyes, 
as well as in those of the recipient. Xo ignorant man is likely to 
consider that responsibility very dignified, which he undertakes at 
the mere solicitation of a politician, by the payment of a few shil- 
lings or of nothing at all, and by the swearing of a few indistinct 
oaths, administered by a careless understrapper, in a side-room or 
dirty office. 

There can, of course, be no reasonable objection to the admission 
of aliens to the full enjoyment of our citizenship, provided only they 
be fit for the trust. It would be a sad departure from the lofty 
ground of benevolent and impartial justice and freedom, upon which 
our government is founded, to proclaim, that hereafter the accident 
of birth alone shall determine the political power of all inhabitants 
of the United States, and that none coming from without their limits, 
good or bad, shall ever acquire the rights within them which our 
nation has ever held to be fundamental rights of man. That would 
be an unworthy political bigotry. But it is time that our naturaliza- 
tion laws, and the administration of them, were put upon a safer 
footing. 

Foreigners should be required to show, that they have, at least, 
been here a sufficient time to permit them to learn the duties of an 
American citizen. They should be required, not only, as now, to 
prove the vague generalities of the statute — that they " have behaved 
as men of good moral character, attached to the principles of the 
Constitution of the United States, and well disposed to the good order 
and happiness of the same" — but to give, as in the case of residence, 
some tangible proof, aside from an oath, that they are capable of 
intelligent attachment to our institutions. They should be required to 
show, in the presence of the authority admitting them, that they can 
speak and read reasonably well, the language in which was originally 



THE NATURALIZATION LAWS. 281 

written the Constitution of the United States. And, lastly, the duty 
of admission, and the attendant examinations, should be confided only 
to men whose weight and dignity of character, and high official trust, 
prove them capable of appreciating the importance of the duty, and 
of performing it honestly. No official of lower grade than the judge 
of a State court of record, should be allowed to determine upon the 
qualifications or admissibility of aliens, applying for the important 
trust of citizenship of the United States. 



UNITED STATES AND IMMIGRATION. 

** In proportion to their numbers, they •will share with us the legislation. They will infuse into it 
their spirit, warp and bias its directions, and render it a heterogeneous, incoherent, distracted mass." 

Jefferson. 

For three-quarters of a century, a great, steady, and increasing 
stream of Europeans has flowed westward, across the Atlantic Ocean, 
into the United States. Commencing at the rate of one or two thou- 
sand a year, it now averages four hundred thousand annually. 

The causes of this great modern exodus are easily understood. 
They have always been moderate circumstances, poverty, misfortune, 
crime, or political offences in Europe ; and the hopes of better days, 
more wealth, peace, ease, freedom, and happiness here. 

Of late, special causes have given a great stimulus to the move- 
ment. The barbarous evictions of poor cotters in Ireland ; political 
reactions, and consequent oppressive government measures, on the 
Continent; the unsettled horizon of the European future, which is 
cloudy with the shadows of continued wars ; the organized operations 
of governments and private individuals to send hither the paupers 
and criminals who accumulate in their almshouses and jails, — have, 
for the last few years, powerfully co-operated with the universal 
instinctive desire after profit, peace, and freedom. 

Of European emigrants to the United States, the great majority are 
from what are there termed " the humbler classes." They are usu- 
ally agricultural laborers or mechanics, and include only a very small 
proportion of persons educated, or of easy fortune. There is also 
among them an entirely disproportionate excess of absolute paupers, 
hospital patients, and criminals — a fact due to the organized expatri- 
ation of such persons, above alluded to. 



284 A VOICE TO AMERICA, 

The statements which follow will furnish a competent general view 
of the number, character, source, distribution, and moral and educa- 
tional condition of the foreign immigration into our Union. 

There are now in this country about three millions of persons born 
without the territories of the United States ; and of foreigners and 
their descendants born within the United States, about four millions. 
Of these three millions, more than four-fifths have come since 1830, 
and considerably more than half since 1840. The annual addition 
to the number — which was, -in 1790, about two thousand — was, in 
1820, nearly five thousand, and after that time rapidly increased, until 
it ranged at twenty-seven thousand in 1830, eighty-four thousand in 
1840, one hundred and forty thousand in 1845, two hundred and 
eighty thousand in 1850, and rose to its greatest number thus far, 
during the year 1854 — about four hundred and sixty thousand — 
without any indications having as yet appeared that the maximum 
has been reached. 

Of the four millions of foreigners and their descendants, Ireland 
has usually sent a larger portion than any other one country, and 
Germany the next greatest. For the last year or two, however, the 
German contingent has been fast increasing, and, in 1854, was more 
than double the Irish, and nearly half of the whole. 

These four millions belong, by birth or immediate .to the 

undermentioned countries, in the following round numbers, which 
however, nearly correct : To Ireland, about one million ; to England, 
Scotland, and Wales, more than half a million (making a total from 
the British islands of about one million live hundred and seventy 
thousand) ; to Germany, nine hundred thousand ; to the remainder of 
North America — namely, Mexico, West Indies, and Canadas — about 
two hundred thousand; to France (including Belgium), seventy-five 
thousand ; t< i I, twenty-five thousand ; to Scandinavia (Swe- 

den, Norway, and Denmark), twenty-four thousand ; to Asia, Africa, 
and' East Indies (about three-fourths of all being Chinese), twenty 
thousand ; to the south of Europe (Spain, ]?orJugal, Italy. Sardinia, 
Greece, and Turkey) twe.lve thousand : to South America, fifteen hun - 



UNITED STATES AND IMMIGRATION. 285 

dred ; to Russia and the Sclavonic races, fourteen hundred. Probably 
seventy-five thousand have entered the country besides, whose birth- 
places are not recorded. 

Of the immigration during 1854 — the largest for any one year 
thus far — we furnish the following analysis, on the same principle of 
classification with that just given. It will be observed that, of some 
nationalities — the Chinese, Scandinavian, and Swiss particularly — a 
very large proportion has arrived during the year. From Ireland, 
one hundred thousand ; England, Scotland, and Wales, fifty-four 
thousand (British islands, therefore, one hundred and fifty-four thou- 
sand) ; Germany, two hundred thousand ; remaining parts of North 
America, and West Indies, nine thousand ; France and Belgium, thir- 
teen thousand five hundred ; Switzerland, eight thousand ; Scandina- 
via, four thousand ; thirteen thousand Chinamen ; south of Europe, 
two thousand eight hundred. 

The port of New York receives about two-thirds of the entire 
number of immigrants ; New Orleans and Boston half of the re- 
mainder ; and Philadelphia, Baltimore, and other Atlantic ports, 
and, for the last few years, California, the rest. Landing in large 
cities, a great proportion of the whole remain there, to fill almshouses 
and hospitals — to beg, sicken, and die. Of the immigration in 1850, 
there remained in our forty largest towns, forty in the hundred of the 
w 7 hole number of Irish, and thirty-six in the hundred of the immi- 
grant Germans. The remainder distributed themselves throughout 
the country, the Irish especially gathering along the lines of the 
newer internal improvements, for work, and living a vagrant, rowdy 
life, wdiich keeps their children from being educated, and themselves 
from being civilized ; while the Germans, and in particular the Hol- 
landers and Scandinavians, devote themselves to trade or farming. 
The foreign population gather principally into the northern range of 
States — the Eastern, Middle, and Northwestern ; there being about 
thirteen foreigners in every hundred inhabitants in the first and last 
sections : while in the Middle States — where the vast congregation 
in and about New York, however, is the principal cause of the 

13* 



286 A VOICE TO AMERICA. 

higli average — there are twenty foreigners to the hundred inhabit- 
ants. 

"What amount of property the foreign incomers bring to the United 
States, it is impossible to estimate. The average of their wealth, as 
well as of their morals, has declined for many years; indeed, nearly 
as their numbers have increased. There are individuals, and occa- 
sionally companies, who bring with them capital enough to establish 
them in business ; but this is an exception and not a -rule, and an ex- 
ception more unfrequent now, when so many actual paupers are sent 
over, who arrive with no money, no clothing, and hardly any rags, 
and who forthwith fall a dead weight upon the public and private 
charities of the land. If, however, we suppose that there has been an 
average of ten dollars of capital added to that already in the country, 
by each immigrant, the whole addition of wealth would amount to 
thirty millions of dollars. But there will be no balance left upon 
deducting from this, or from twice as much, the expenses, public and 
private, of supporting and imprisoning the paupers and criminals of 
the number, and the amounts withdrawn from circulation here, and 
sent to Europe to help out the poverty at home. What these amounts 
are it is as difficult to state, as to tell the entire property of the im- 
migrants ; a few items, however, will suffice to show that their aggre- 
gates must be enormous. In four years, from 1848 to 18ol inclu- 
sive, lli'' English Commissioners of Immigration alone, made a return 
of sums sent back from America, within their knowledge, amounting 
to a total of fourteen millions of dollars, which up to this time is un- 
doubtedly swelled to at least thirty millions. Considering then what 
must have been remitted since 1790, not to England only, but to Ire- 
land, Germany, France, and other parts of Europe, it is not difficult 
to see that even to make this amount good, it would have been ne- 
cessary for immigrants to bring with them twenty dollars per head, 
besides earning or paying for their living from the day of' arrival. 
Suppose them to have brought, all told, even a hundred millions of 
dollars, remittances at the rate <>t' thirty millions to England alone in 
eight years would soon exhaust that. But besides this, there must be 



UNITED STATES AND IMMIGRATION. 287 

considered the expense of pauperism and crime — items also incapable 
of satisfactory investigation. Some idea of their extent may perhaps 
be gathered from the fact, that aside from all public and private char- 
ities, the expenditure for public support of paupers of foreign birth, 
within the United States, during the single year ending June 1st, 
1850, even by the imperfect returns gathered, was over one million 
four hundred thousand dollars. 

The paupers so relieved were sixty-eight thousand five hundred in 
number, while the number of paupers of American birth relieved in 
the same way was sixty-six thousand four hundred ; namely, one sev- 
enth as many in proportion to the entire number. 

Of the expenses incurred in repressing or punishing the crimes of 
immigrants, only an extensive and laborious search could supply any 
account. But criminal proceedings are expensive, and many crimi- 
nal prosecutions are brought against foreigners. Of the whole num- 
ber of criminals convicted during the year ending June 1st, 1850, 
twelve thousand eight hundred were natives, and thirteen thousand 
seven hundred foreigners ; about, as before, seven times as many in 
the hundred as those of our own population. 

That these items of public expenditure, together with the draw- 
backs already stated, would exhaust more than any amount which 
immigrants may have brought into the country, is very certain. 

Lastly, a few numbers showing the educational comparison between 
the foreigners and natives, are indispensable in order to a due com- 
prehension of their tendencies and capacities, when domesticated 
with us. Of the whole number of native whites in the United States, 
then, one in five is attending school ; of the foreign population, only 
one-third as many — one in fifteen. Of natives, of school age, viz., be- 
tween five and fifteen, eight in ten are at school; of foreigners of same 
ao-e, only five in ten. Of the whole number of native whites, about four 
and a half out of every hundred cannot read or write ; of foreigners, 
nine out of the same number — twice as many. Of natives over twenty 
years of age, eight and a quarter in the hundred cannot read or 
write ; of foreigners, fourteen and a half in the hundred. 



288 A \ULCE TO AMERICA. 

The prospect of future immigration, however, demands some con- 
sideration. There seems to be no reason why the exodus from 
Europe to America should not yet grow and continue. Even if the 
remainder of the Irish population should stay at home, there are mil- 
lions and millions on the Continent who will complete the yearly 
number of immigrants. So far as material interests are concerned, 
greater and greater inducements are offered by the increasing wealth, 
enlarged capacity, and demand for labor within our own country. "We 
have abundance of room and of riches. Such inducements have 
already operated upon so many of the over-crowded and poverty- 
stricken European nations, that it is quite certain that they will con- 
tinue to operate. And on the other side of the Atlantic there are not 
wanting impulses to co-operate with the attractions here. The future 
of the European nations is stormy and dart. Revolutionary princi- 
ples are seething under the apparently smooth surface of her political 
aspect, and before long, despotism, anarchy, and liberty will be strug- 
gling together; wars and rebellions exert their disorganizing and 
unhappy influence, and increasing crowds will flee from the home 
misery to the foreign peace upon our territory. Europe then, crowded 
with people, oppressed with poverty, containing much sterile land, 
and doomed to the horrors of complicated and obstinate wars, will 
long send vast and vaster yearly bands to share our free peace, our 
rich and boundless lands, and our quiet wealth. We shall, apparent- 
ly, also continue to receive the refuse of almshouses, and the felon gar-, 
bage of prisons, shipped hither wholesale by European governments 
and societies. 

During the periods often years, from 1810 to 1850, the successive 
totals of immigration have arisen from one hundred and fourteen 
thousand to two hundred and four thousand seven hundred and eighty 
thousand, and lastly, one million four hundred and forty thousand. 
Within the ten years now passing, viz., from 1850 to 1S60, all the 
facts and probabilities indicate that we shall receive four millions of 
European immigrants of the poorest, and most worthless class of the 
population. What the increase will be beyond that time, we have 



UNITED STATES AND IMMIGRATION. 289 

no means of estimating. But this number is sufficient to show the 
vs&x and increasing importance of the movement, and the certainty of 
the speedy operation of such a mass of humanity upon our own peo- 
ple in some way, either for good or evil. 

We have not here the time nor the space to consider fully the sig- 
nificance of this great movement of the European population. But 
none can fail to see that an annual irruption into this country of half 
a million people, who are shown by the merest arithmetical compu- 
tation to be twice as ignorant as we are, and (perhaps in consequence) 
seven times as lawless, and seven times as helpless and sick, is a move- 
ment of great power. Whether its results are or will be good or evil, 
of what modifications they are susceptible, what means should be 
used to modify them, are questions which we discuss in another place. 

There is, however, one single phenomenon of such vast importance, 
and so closely connected with our subject, that it may properly bo 
alluded to in this place. This is the suicidal political action of nat- 
uralized immigrants. Whatever may be the object of foreigners en- 
tering our country, and our nation — whether they come for peace, for 
freedom, or for wealth — it is beneath the protection of our national- 
ity, our Constitution, and our laws, that they seek that object. The 
whole fabric of that Constitution and those laws was erected, and has 
been and is maintained by free political action, by the intelligent 
voice of our people, appointing what they thought good. The laws 
so established and sustained have raised us to a position of such 
strength and wealth, that we are able to offer an asylum to the op- 
pressed of all nations. This has been freely accepted, and accepted 
in the majority of cases, until lately, with thankful hearts, and a pro- 
per acquiescence in the established institutions of the land. 

But, within a few years, an ominous change in the demeanor of 
our foreign beneficiaries has appeared. They seem to be steadily 
seeking to overthrow our own institutions, whenever those institutions 
happen to conflict with the prejudices or hatreds engendered in their 
own minds in the darkness of their native despotisms. The wise 
Sabbath laws which are so general in our commonwealths, are a 



290 A VOICE TO AMERICA. 

living evidence of the intimate connection of Christianity with their 
fundamental policy. That connection is the very basis of their 
strength and durability. But a band of atheistical Germans, think- 
ing that in this country there is no need, even outwardly, cither to 
fear God or to regard man, get together and call upon the govern- 
ment to abrogate all laws enforcing the observance of the Christian 
Sabbath. 

Our established, wise, and unsectarian mode of distributing State 
money to public schools, without regard to any religious denomina- 
tion, is a great obstacle to the Jesuitical views of foreign priests, who 
desire to control the education of native youth, and unsuspectedly to 
prepare the way for the complete supremacy of the Romish Church 
over our free State. All the open and secret arts of the most in- 
triguing class of men in the world are set in motion to secure the 
discontinuance of this practice, and to effect the distribution of pub- 
lic money to schools distinctly Romanist, for uses wholly sectarian, 
anti-republican, aud anti-American. 

This is not the place to enter into any extended exposition of the 
necessary tendencies and results of such conduct. But the broad 
fact stands plainly out, that the masses of our foreign population are 
determined to move steadily forward in a line of their own, without 
regard to the laws or feelings of the people who have sheltered them. 
Armed rebellion or secret plot — bribery or bullying — all modes of 
action or coercion, however wicked, or unconstitutional, are to be 
unscrupulously seized and remorselessly wielded, to complete their 
foolish and disorganizing purposes. This suicidal and unaccounta- 
ble course of conduct, if allowed to be carried through, will sink the 
vessel that carries themselves and their fortunes. It is the sei 
less fury of the maniac who attacks his best friend with the same 
tiger-like ferocity which he displays to his worst enemy. It would 
necessarily terminate our present glorious and happy en asti- 

tutional law. It would substitute for it one of two things — either 
an utter anarchy, such as they have striven to create at home, or a 
centralized despotism, which they have * scaped by fleeing hither. 



THE CITIZEN OF A REPUBLIC. 



The elements 



So mix'd in him, that Nature might stand up 
And say to all the world, "This was a man." 

Shakespeare. 

Republicanism, the noblest form of earthly government, demands 
iht exertion of the highest moral and intellectual faculties of man. 

The establishment of a Republic is a work of comparatively easy 
accomplishment, its maintenance is a struggle of immense magnitude : 
the former requires but the hand of a warrior or legislator ; the latter 
necessitates the heart and arm of the entire people. Autocracy may 
flourish with a nation sunk in ignorance and slavery ; Monarchy 
fearlessly surrenders the destinies of an empire to the guidance of a 
few ; but Democracy is the vox populi, vox Dei, and only acts when 
every citizen has spoken. 

As fear is the controlling principle of Despotism — honor of a 
Monarchy, — so virtue is the mainspring, the life-blood of a Republic. 
This vital principle of democracy is the individual influence of each 
citizen upon public affairs : it is not the mere exercise of political 
power, but the every-day walk and conversation of one whose ex- 
ample causes others to do well ; for, " No deed of a good citizen is 
useless ; for even by his attention, his appearance, his nod, his^silence, 
or his step, he may avail something." 

This political virtue,' so necessary to a good citizen, and without 
which no republic can long exist, includes patriotism, integrity, and 
self-denial. In proportion as these principles influence a democracy, 
the commonwealth is prosperous ; but when they are forgotten, the 



292 A VOICE TO AMERICA. 

State becomes a prey to selfish passions, party feuds, and civil com- 
motion, and is fast travelling the road to anarchy aud despotism. 

Patriotism is not the mure love of country, nor its object the tinsel 
of present glory. Far nobler are its aims, for its visions are prospec- 
tive, and its aspirations invoke the future. The patriot lives not for 
himself, but fur posterity; he works not to aggrandize, but to establish; 
he sacrifices the chances of success, if trammelled by the possibility 
of failure. He gives " his hand and his heart" to the defence of the 
republic, without regard to ties of blood or kindred, and never lends 
his countenance to any, who, through ignorance or passion, propose 
measures at variance with freedom, or inimical to the peace of the 
country. He is the uncompromising foe of demagogues. 

" An honest man's the noblest work of God." "Where shall we 
find a better illustration of this maxim, than in the citizen of a Re- 
public ? Clothing himself m integrity, he cares not if rulers threaten 
or the masses rage ; emulating the virtue of an Aiistides or a Cato, 
neither the eulogies of the multitude, the charms of popularity, 
the threats of enemies, nor the entreaties of friends can move his 
decision. His first, his only thought, is for his country: personal 
motives cannot sway him ; patriotism has told him how to act, no 
consideration can induce the contrary. He refuses the emoluments 
of oi an inducement to venality; titles and honors he scorns, 

for he looks nol to outward applause, but to inward satisfaction. His 
aim is, his country: his motto — Incorruptible. 

' ; Luxury is the death of a Republic."* This vice is utterly op- 

the spirit of democracy, for it is the deification of self, and 

forgetfulness of the general good. The Carthaginians, unconquered 

by the Romans, fell before the luxuries of Capua. Athens flourished 

when wealth in and manners remained virtuous; but the 

ublic of Sol^a, Aiistides, and Plato, fell, when her citizens 

;!it their individual pleasures, and forgot their duty to the 

State. Not the immortal eloquence of a Demosthenes, nor the 

terrors of Philip at her gates, could relight the flame of patriot- 

* Montesquieu. 



THE CITIZEN OF A REPUBLIC. 293 

ism, which had shone so triumphantly at Salamis and Marathon. 
Athens, the beautiful, the glorious, the mother of the arts and 
literature, the soul of that Greece whose fame will flourish through 
admiring ages ; even Athens, adjudged the penalty of death to those 
of her citizens who proposed devoting the moneys of the theatres 
to the defence of the Republic. Rome, the republic of Brutus and 
Cato — that empire which has given the world the brightest examples 
of patriotism, integrity, and self-denial — fell through luxury. As 
Demosthenes in Greece, so Cicero in Rome, found his eloquence 
powerless against the ambition, the selfish passions of the aristocracy. 
The empire of the Caesars inaugurated luxury, and the masculine 
vigor of her Horatii, her Codes, and her Cincinnatus forever de- 
parted. Well might Tacitus depict the energy, the sobriety, the 
manliness of the Germans, and describe the certain fall of his country, 
unless she returned to the ancient virtues of the Republic. Luxury 
had destroyed every bond of sympathy between provinces and indi- 
viduals, and Goths, Visigoths, Vandals, and Franks only completed 
what the Romans themselves had begun. 

What then shall we say to those of our countrymen, who, in spite 
of the warnings of history, the testimony of philosophers, the antece- 
dents of their country, nay, of their allegiance to the Republic, are 
seeking to introduce the luxury of an aristocracy in our midst? 
What means this aping of the exclusiveness of courts, this creation of 
a factitious, privileged class ? Does mere wealth confer social supre- 
macy ? is the falsity of caste consonant with the truth of democracy ? 
The abhorred relics of feudalism, leading America back to the medi- 
aeval ages, should meet with the undying hate of the true citizen, and 
their partisans should be consigned to universal obloquy and reproach. 
Perish forever such arch-treason to the Republic, for our existence is 
only possible in equality ! 

Luxury is not necessarily associated with trade and commerce : a 
country may safely foster the latter, if due precaution be taken to 
avoid the former. The mere fact of becoming rich, will not affect 
the virtue of the citizen, if he still view as a principle above every other 



294: A VOICE TO AMERICA. 

consideration the well-being of the community at large. But, when 
men amass large fortunes, and, retiring from their fellow-citizens into 
a species of luxurious cliquism, attempt the formation of an upper class 
in the midst of that equality without which democracy is an impos- 
sibility, the a?gis of patriotism must be raised against the treason, and 
hydra-headed oligarchism be met with that hostility which can alone 
insure the safety of the Republic. The true citizen purges his soul of 
all selfishness, and lives and labors but for his country. 

The true, the only check to luxury is in religion, education, and 
public opinion, inducing men to seek the welfare and prosperity of the 
country rather than their own profit and interest, more especially 
when these two are in opposition. Memorable are such examples in 
all ages, and bright the instances in our own history. It is disinter- 
estedness which gives the superiority to republicanism over every 
other government ; only in republicanism does this self-denial exist, 
for there alone is it possible. The object of all religion, whether true 
or false, is to govern human passions, to mould the human will. 
Armed with the authority of its divine origin, its province is to sub- 
due human nature — finding mankind in a state of warfare, it seeks to 
harmonize the discordant elements and bless the world with peace. 
Society, the association of man with his fellow-man, is the offspring of 
religion. 

Education inculcates the laws of this association, those checks which 
society has imposed for its own safety. Religion must, therefore, be 
a necessary part of all education, since man's passions are as inimical 
to the peace of the State, as they are hurtful to his own happiness. 

But religion and education are insufficient to perpetuate unity, 
peace, and concord. History gives many instances of agitators, honest, 
but misguided in their intentions: such can only be withstood by the 
force of public opinion. All attempts, therefore, to control this free 
expression are hurtful to the freedom of a country. The citizen must 
avail himself of this power, whenever the national Liberties are assail- 
ed; his animadversions upon agitators and their measures are the 
power of veto, exerted in right of his sovereignty. When the citizen 



THE CITIZEN OF A REPUBLIC. 295 

comes in collision with such, he must freely upbraid their fickleness 
and expose the fallacies of their opinions ; nor will he be intimidated 
from boldly lifting up his voice against all rash or perilous public 
measures, no matter how much odium he may incur, nor how many 
outrages he may have to face. " Neither the depraved fury of a 
threatening populace, nor the frown of an angry tyrant, can move 
the firm purpose of a just man, who is established in his opinions." 

The citizen should beware of all those measures which beget divi- 
sions in free States, and endanger harmony and prosperity. He must 
be in continual remembrance that he is a freeman, and scorn to ally 
himself with any who have not proved themselves firm friends of the 
Republic, or shown themselves unwavering supporters of the Consti- 
tution. Despising factious opposition, he will yield on minor points, 
so as not to refuse his aid to the party which, in essentials, is clearly 
in the right. Socrates was explicit on this subject : " The citizen 
should endeavor to persuade his countrymen of the views he cherishes 
himself, if he can ; but, if this be impossible, let him follow their com- 
mands." The very perpetuity of a Republic depends upon the con- 
cord of those in whom the legislative power is vested. 

The citizen will submit himself unreservedly to the magistrates. 
" To show honor to others is often more praiseworthy than to be 
honored one's self:" he will recognize the power of the common- 
wealth in the ministration of the judge ; and, so far from withholding 
obedience, he will esteem it an honor to obey. JSTor should this rev- 
erence be paid from regard merely to the office, but, if possible, 
through esteem for the excellence of personal virtue, which has ele- 
vated the magistrate to power. Therefore, should the magistrate be 
wise and virtuous in order to be reverently obeyed. "Obedience 
prepares men for empire." 

There are certain acquirements which it is the duty of every citi- 
zen to possess. Such is a knowledge of history, for by this he learns 
the dangers through which his own and other countries have passed, 
and observes how certain policies inevitably lead to certain results. 
From history, he finds examples of the good and great in all ages, for- 



296 A VOICE TO AMERICA. 

tifies his soul with their virtues, and leaves their memory ;> a rich leg- 
acy unto his children." Most especially should he apply himself to 
the study of the resources of the Republic ; acquiring every detail 
relative to her agriculture, manufacture, and commerce — the capabili- 
ties and deficiencies of the State — her relations with foreign powers, 
the numbers of the people, and the popular feeling on public sub- 
jects. 

These acquirements the citizen will find indispensable, since other- 
wise he cannot legislate in the general good : he must reflect that 
when the Senate assembles, he is responsible for their decrees. Armed 
with these acquirements, he will be enabled to select those who are 
most capable of legislating beneficially, and will be prepared at all 
times to meet and controvert the designs and sophistries of traitors 
and agitators. There is no higher glory on earth than in a citizen 
faithfully serving his country : in the eloquent language of Cicero, 
" Of all things human, there is nothing more glorious or more excel- 
lent than to deserve well of the Republic." 

"The acquisition of honors is to be esteemed praiseworthy," vet 
should offices not be sought for, nor refused, unless they exceed the 
citizen's merit. He must not disdain companionship and counsel in 
them, nor fall into the mistake that his duty to the country is dis- 
charged when his term of office expires. Aristides and the Roman 
Cato were seldom in office, yet their republican virtues ceaselessly in- 
fluenced the citizens. 

Self-denial is the highest effort of moral courage. The citizen is 
as likely to err in false modesty, as in following the dictates of ambi- 
tion. He should, therefore, accurately weigh the advantages which 
may accrue to the State by his accepting office, and no consideration 
of self-interest should induce him to refuse that which his country- 
men require him to assume. In this respect, he will model himself 
upon the examples of Cincinnatus, Brutus, and Washington — heroes, 
who lived but for their country — in whose breasts ambition found no 
place — men who on their brows bore the proud boast of the Roman 
orator — "Mens conscia recti."" 



THE CITIZEN OF A REPUBLIC. 297 

• How shall we sufficiently reprehend the conduct of those of our 
countrymen who forget the glorious traditions of their native land, 
and become courtiers in foreign climes ? Ansaldo Ceba, the illustri- 
ous citizen of the Genoese republic, observes : " With foreign princes 
we think the citizen will be wise not to cultivate much intimacy. 
When he happens to meet them, he should certainly show them all 
honor, by signs of respect and reverence ; but this should suffice. 
Nor should he hold any other language with them, than courtesy or 
necessity may require. But, at the same time, if accident bring 
them together, or he be in any manner provoked by them, let him 
with noble resentment give such gentlemen to understand, that his 
republic loves liberty, and that he is ready to offer his property and 
his life to preserve it." 

Far different is the conduct of many of our countrymen, when 
surrounded by all the pomp and circumstance of kings and aristo- 
crats. Unmindful of their antecedents and the precious reminiscences 
of their distant land ; ignoring the slight which they are thus casting 
on the republic ; unobservant of the obloquy which the titled valets 
of Europe rejoice to cast on democracy, when Americans are thus 
seen worshipping that system which their ancestors fought and bled 
to throw off, — these republican-trained courtiers, these bourgeois- 
gentilshommes and Potiphars, bedeck themselves in the livery of mo- 
narchical servitude, and, like Themistocles at Persia, almost turn 
traitors to their country, quickly losing even the appearance of repub- 
lican virtue. Returning to their native land, they retain and move in 
a European atmosphere. Claiming the friendship or acquaintance 
of this or that noble lackey or aristocratic debauchee, they affect an 
air of superiority, establish in their salons the etiquette of courts, and 
smile with ineffable contempt on democratic institutions. Our paint- 
ings and sculptures are false to art, because, forsooth, these travelled 
coxcombs have lounged in the shadow of the Louvre, or played the 
minion at Florence. Music has lost its charms, since here it is obtain- 
able by all. Our literature may possibly be tolerated, but it becomes 
secondary to the productions of other people. America is voted vul- 



298 A VOICE TO AMERICA. 

gar by her own children, and the horrible putrescence of European 
decay is inoculated into our democra-tic system. 

Not so acted the first envoys of this Republic. In refusing court 
to monarchs, they gained respect for themselves and alliance for their 
country. In the utmost simplicity of dress and manner, they de- 
manded and obtained more true esteem than the proudest nobles of 
Europe — and left behind them the memory of their simple virtues, 
which our modern diplomats seem careful not to copy. 

Americans ! will you thus deny your birthright, defame the mem- 
ory of your fathers, and inspire contempt for their country in the 
hearts of your children ? Oh, distant, immeasurably distant, be the 
day when such principles shall become general ! Where is the divine 
afflatus of those heroes, who, inspired by universal democracy, rose 
majestically with the people, and towered, giant like, amidst their 
aristocratic foes ? "Where are Franklin and Adams — meteors, flash- 
ing across the blackness of European diplomacy? W 7 here those 
ancient senators, whose eloquence, echoing through the forum, found 
emphasis in the hearts of the people ? Where those citizens, who 
loved the Republic above property, family, yea, life itself; whom agi- 
tators dared not me — before whose inflexible honesty, demagogues 
feared and trembled? 

We must recall the ancient days. We must return to first prin- 
ciples, and study models of former years. Our children must be 
prepared with more than Spartan care, and taught how bright and 
glorious is their inheritance, — how hollow the joys which are but the 
gratification of the senses. The standard of republican virtue must 
everywhere be raised — selfishness be uprooted from every spirit — pat- 
riotism no longer remain a high-sounding name; but the maxim be 
written in every breast — My country, everywhere and at all times, — 
the Republic, one and indivisible, — America, above all things. 



AMERICAN NATIONALITY. 

" It is true we should become a little more Americanized." — General Jackson, 

The national characters of the leading nations of the world are 
clearly defined and understood. The sturdy, thoughtful, grumbling 
Englishman — the lively, fickle Frenchman — the proud and grave 
Spaniard — the reflective and metaphysical German, are as well dis- 
tinguished by these titles, as the Indian, the Arab, and the European 
by their complexions. 

This nationality is stamped on the individuals of the nation and 
on its policy. As are the inhabitants, so are their rulers and their 
measures ; and the home and foreign operations of the government 
usually take more or less shape from the character of the people who 
support them. 

In the United States there is a distinct individual nationality. The 
leading characteristic of the Anglo-American is energy : he is the 
energetic American. His energy is not only continuous in operation, 
but wise in its aim ; his enterprises, whatever they be, are admirably 
contrived, energetically commenced, obstinately adhered to, and per- 
severiugly supported. 

There are other qualities which assist in forming our national char- 
acter. Of these we need only enumerate, — first, shrewdness in busi- 
ness, enterprise, and skill ; the results of which, surpassing the slow 
business methods of the Old World, lead strangers to stigmatize us 
as mere money-getters and speculators. Secondly, romance and 
ideality, which are not merely evinced in our literary pursuits, but 
have given impetus to the actions of our citizens to no inconsiderable 
extent. A sentiment of romantic enterprise has, from the first, deeply 



300 A VOICE TO AMERICA. 

imbued the minds of our people, especially those pioneers of civiliza- 
tion — the hunter and backwoodsman of the West. Thirdly, hope. 
Other nations may glory in the Past, but we are the people of the 
Future. To futurity we look, and as time unfolds the mysteries of promise, 
surrounding countries behold with astonishment our progress, and even 
we ourselves are compelled to wonder. 

Such are a few of the principal characteristics of Americans. Our 
nationality is distinct and strong, but, hitherto, it has impressed but 
little of itself upon the policy of our government. ' 

There is no nation of any considerable importance on the face of 
the earth, that has not its own distinctive policy. Circumstances may 
give that policy a shape, but it is the native energy of the nation which 
gives it emphasis before the world. Great Britain has her policy, 
which is called British, and France has long entertained her own. 
The policy of Russia has been traditionary from generation to gene- 
ration. Even Austria understands the significancy of the term, and 
puts forth her policy in a shape which puzzles all Europe's diplomacy. 
The policy of Germany is to keep aloof from a war which threatens to 
become general. Spain is sullenly determined not to loose her hold 
on Cuba, and thus her policy is known. 

All announce their public purpose but America. With her, the 
national < opinion does not yet seem to have become sufficiently de- 
fined to take expression. It has not yet so strongly centralized its 
many elements, as to assume a name. We are drifting about on an 
open sea, without national compass or rudder. Circumstances alone 
define the national character ; a predetermined sentiment neither 
governs it, nor gives it shape. AVe exist but to study the purposes of 
other nations, having none to contemplate of our own. A great 
people, we are unwilling to announce ourselves a peculiar nation. In 
the front of the world in power, we are yet behind all others in a 
published policy. Fortune seems to guide us unresistingly on her 
own course, while we merely profit by the temporary and irregular 
favors she sees fit to throw in our way. AVe rather thrive by the 
mistakes of others, thnn by any fixed resolutions of our own. 



AMERICAN NATIONALITY. 301 

The picture is none too broad for truth. It has been repeatedly 
drawn by the course of our rulers, and as often silently acquiesced in 
by the people. The popular mind has long been so wrongly bent, 
that the question has come to be seriously debated, whether America 
shall be American, or shall become an indescribable fusion of all the 
nationalities on the face of the earth ! Designing and ambitious men, 
whose care is for themselves before their country, declare that America 
is for the world ; that the sentiment of an enlarged and comprehensive 
humanity is to put aside and replace the glowing and vitalizing spirit 
of nationality ; that while other countries have been bigoted, illiberal, 
or tyrannical, there is no room on the soil of America for sentiments 
like these to flourish ; and that we are to announce no particular 
affection for our country simply for its own sake, and the sake of our 
fellow-citizens, but to consider that all the world has both equal rights 
and equal affections here with ourselves. 

This is a most specious and hollow-hearted doctrine. It w r ould give 
but a negative character to any country, and make it the dupe of 
despots, and the football of the nations. It implies nothing less than 
a complete abnegation of individuality for a State, and insists on the 
formation of a composite national character which is neither one 
thing nor another. They who advocate it with such ignorant zeal, 
forget that its foreign beneficiaries are armed with a national spirit 
that refuses through life to be dispossessed of its position. They are 
insensible to the truth that the emigrants who arrive here never give 
up their love for their native land, and are never expected to make 
so unnatural a sacrifice ; and that one of the most notable ]3ro vi- 
sions of our noble Constitution, forever shutting out the possibility 
of a naturalized citizen's reaching the Presidency, was an honorable 
tribute, on the part of its framers, to a sentiment everywhere to be 
respected. 

It is a false and baseless plea, that if America's mission is for 
humanity, it cannot, therefore, sustain a separate and distinct nation- 
ality of its own. Except through an individual organization of all its 
various elements, a nation cannot in the first place enjoy any per- 

14 



302 A VOICE TO AMERICA. 

manent existence; and except, again, through the projectile force of 
that separate organism, it cannot hope to make the influence of 

its existence anywhere perceived. 'Without energy, no nation can 
even keep its place in history. There must needs be an earnest con- 
ration of all the faith, all the hopes, all the affections, and all the 
ambition of its people around some particular objects, or the nation 
falls away from its organic strength, and the desires and hopes of 
humanity must turn elsewhere for their realization. From a truth so 
apparent there is no possible escape. That nation only is the truest to 
humanity at large, which never :■ • be true to both liberty and 

humanity in itself. It may not go abroad in search of objects for 
its beneficence, until it has first acquired for its own people the power 
to bestow the cow-ted blessing. 

In the conflict of parties, and confusion of tongues of this present 
time, there comes to the ear one voice, louder than all others. It 
speaks with an emphasis, and a meaning that is unmistakable. Every 
syllable promises the inauguration of a new era. Every word inspirits 
our faltering hopes. It seems undeniable that the period has arrived 
in our history, when we are to make a stand for a character and a* 
policy that shall be entirely American. It is indeed a happy 01 
and we hail it as we daily hail the fflorious advent of the morning 
sun. The uational mind is fully awake. The popular heart I 
high and healthily. Patriotism rouses itself from its long 
forgetfulness, and liberty once more' smiles serenely on her votari . 

This sudden uprising of the popular sentiment, strikes vigorous 
blows at the slothful inefficiency of character, which our country has 
succumbed to, under the long-continued lead of partisan administra- 
tions. [| insists on the establishment and perpetuation of a spirit of 
true nationality, above the reach of political factions and juntos, and 
removed from the influence of either fawning or (lattery. Something 
like this was certainly needed. America was rapidly becoming a 
mark for the opposition and intrigues of other nations, rather than the 
•ly director of an imposing and self-sustaining power of her own. 
Her liberality was last degenerating into a patient and good-natured 



AMERICAN NATIONALITY. 303 

sufferance of all evils, instead of asserting that inherent force of resist- 

, which at the very first lifted, her to rank among the nations. 
Her generosity was relapsing into a disease, whose ulcerous spread 
threatened the final'health of the entire body politic. 

Under these circumstances, any movement on the part of the peo- 
ple to destroy and put out of sight the effete existence of a corrupt- 
ing partisanship, is one which appeals with an eloquent tongue to the 
heart of the nation. It must command the profoundest attention, and 
excite the deepest sensibilities of those whose desires are patriotic. 
The sentiment of nationality demands, at this juncture, a more strenu- 
ous advocacy than it has ever received since the days of the Revolu- 
tion. Tl an urgent need for impressing it on the hearts of 
the whole people. This day must we assert an American origin, an 
American spirit, and an American policy, or the opportunity may be 
gone forever. 

In the first place, we cannot treasure too carefully all those peculiar 
features whether of character, custom, or opinions, that are so distinc- 
tively our own. That which lies around us, we ought to incorporate 
into our being, so that it may do its natural work. Even our various 
idiosyncracies of national character are worth preservation, if only 
because they are American. The recollection of them, may some day 
suddenly fire a train of patriotic impulses, which will terminate in the 
most noble deeds. 

But, above all, our opinions should receive the tincture of a truly 
national tone. They should all tacitly refer to the existence of a 
country, whose grand characteristics we each of us seek to reflect. 
An Eno-lishman will remain an Eno-Hshman as lono- as he lives ; and 
not more -in his habits than in his expressed opinions. France, and 
her glory, is the touchstone to wdrich Frenchmen undeviatingly apply 
their thoughts ; and these give it a shape and color that characterize 
it all over the world. So it is with the people of other countries uni- 
versally. No matter how the national sentiment first took form ; it 
exists, and works by a process as secret as it is difficult of analysis. 
And so it should be with ourselves. A true ximerican cannot con- 



301 A VOICE TO AMERICA. 

sistently hold similar political opinions with an Englishman; nor 
ought he at any time to entertain the idle hope of bringing about 
their reconciliation. Between liberty and any form or degree of ab- 
solutism, there is fixed an impas :lf. It mus for- 
ever. 

If the American's opinions borrow their tone from the institutions 
of his country, they will be 1; nerous, and comprehensive, while 

lose none of that local spirit which should give them both life 
and energy. They will stand as the representatives of humanity every- 
where, yet never put off the national \ tents in which I 
clothed. They may belong to the world, and still remain rooted in 
American soil. They may strike boldly for universal liberty, and 
still consecrate themselves to the welfare of that particular country 
wh< they represent. In all a they will be original 

and peculiar, free from the taint of old political system-, and clear of 
alliance with tyrannies and despotisms. 

In estimating the true extent of such a national feeling upon the basis 
of the reeordsofour more recent political history, the results at which 
we are forced to arrive are almost too astonishing tov belief. If it be 
seriously inquired whether there is any real need of reviving the sen- 
timent of nationality, our only rep!)' is — u Come and see!" And 
whal d" we A people patiently submitting to the control of 

men, who, long ago, have sunk the sentiment of patriotism in the 
slough of partyism ; rulers ambitious always for themselves, but rarely 
for their country ; the government kept artfully in the hands of those 
whose sworn fidelity to political cabals and factions outweighs the 
thought of duty to that land, within whose limits all parties and all 
opinions are tolerated ; public men holding high offices of trust from 
the people, abusing their trust without a blush of shame, and con- 
verting the administration of government into a game i^' chance, in 
which the players are incited by passion, by unworthy ambition, 
by lust for individual power, and even by malice and revenge; the 
wishes of the people forgotten and neglected; the hopes of the na- 
tion unnoticed, and the name of America receding from that height 



AMEKICAN NATIONALITY. 305 

of influence to -which it once attained, and losing the bright lustre 
which once radiated in every direction over the civilized world. 

Our politics have degenerated into quibbles and personal quarrels. 
Exalted motives do not enter as an element into their direction. The 
country has fallen a long way behind the party in the race. Indivi- 
dual success is paramount to the general welfare. The triumph of a 
faction, through the election of its candidates, is considered before the 
glory of the nation. Measures receive their full share of discussion, 
but the great principles of national existence never. The future 
seems to be unregarded, and the past is wholly blotted out. It has 
come to be supposed, that public men may be never so selfish, never 
so destitute of any great national idea with which to inspire their 
conduct, and never so devoted to the single interests of the political 
organization to which they have promised allegiance, — and still the 
nation will take abundant care of itself. Under a popular form of 
government it cannot be so : a deep and strong national sentiment 
must correct, combine, and subordinate all other sentiments, or it will 
inevitably fall back into a secondary position, to be shaped and con- 
trolled by them. There is no help against so serious a catastrophe. 

We need but to become attentive observers, to discover that there 
is such a national sentiment in the breasts of Americans, God-given 
with their existence. But it is, as yet, hardly more than the germ of 
what should long ago have exhibited the proportions of a vigorous 
plant. It is scarcely more than the love of home, with the untold 
associations that cluster about its name. It exists, but it needs cul- 
ture. It must be drawn out, developed, strengthened, and healthily 
matured. Hitherto, opportunities have not been offered. Circum- 
stances have been extremely unpropitious. The sentiment has broken 
its strength upon objects unworthy of its attachment, and been fawned 
upon by sycophants to whom patriotism is a forgotten word. It ha* 
been addressed by politicians who failed to comprehend its character, 
and basely deluded by the appeals of those who sought its aid for 
mean and unholy ends. 

But, distorted and misused as it has been, it still maintains its 



306 A VOICE TO AMERICA. 

inherent vigor and virtue. Its surface has been sullied, but with 
time the taint will wear away. The original sentiment remains 
intact. As we remarked before, it needs only more propitious circum- 
stances and influences to give it character and definiteness. Such 
names as Jackson and Clay possess the power to draw it out into 
expression, because no men have lived who were more American 
than they. They knew no country save their owu. They were of 
ourselves, — the natives of our own soil, — fresh, large, and original ; 
and to such men the American heart will instinctively attach itself, 
because in their very persons they worthily represent our country and 
its noble institutions. This impulsive attachment, therefore, betrays 
the existence of the national sentiment, and tells too plainly what is 
required to impart to it energy of action. 

When this great national idea takes complete possession of a 
people, rooting itself so deeply in their hearts as to defy dislodgment, 
it will not brook even the most trifling opposition on its own soil. It 
is a power dwelling with the masses, that cannot be provoked or 
insulted with impunity. It claims an imperial sway, and exacts the 
deference demanded by despotism. Nothing is so large that it can- 
not embrace it; nothing so trifling that it cannot invest with undying 
glory. It stands for its own right, and feels itself strong enough to 
be secure. Those who underrate its consequence, must fall beneath 
its power ; those who seek to bring it into contempt, shall th< 
one day be held up to universal scorn and detestation. 

It has been claimed that, as Ave cannot expect our foreign popula- 
tion to forget the ties that hold them to their native land, and to 
enter into close relationship with a sentiment for which the] 
no qualifications, we ought therefore so far to submit to a modifica- 
tion of oui' national preferences as to accommodate ourselves to their 
unfortunate situation. This is the doctrine, though it is not. perhaps, 
quite so plainly announced. But, by what authority are we bidden 
to put oil' oiir own nationality, and go peddling it about to aliens, 
strangers, or outcasts? Who commands r. the im- 

mortal memories of Bunker Hill, of Trenton, of Saratoga, and of 






AMEBICAN NATIONALITY. 307 

Yorktown, for the mess of pottage which they bring from other 
shores ? What power is it that dares to exercise such authority — but 
the shameless and irresponsible power of party, that forgets country, 
that forgets all things, save only its own selfish success ? 

Our foreign population, as a body, were never induced to come to 
American shores from the simple love of liberty, or its institutions. 
It is no deep attachment to us, or our principles, or to the spirit and 
genius of our government, that brings them here. They can confess 
to but one motive ; and that, the hope of bettering their fortunes. 
They come to receive more money for their labor, to provide more 
liberally for the necessities of their families, to hoard wealth, and to 
be beyond the reach of tyranny. 

And is it not enough, then, that America offers them the free 
enjoyment of all these privileges? Is it not enough that each family 
may have a farm in the heart of our rich domains, on the simple con- 
dition of their taking possession ? Is it not enough that our laws are 
as efficient to protect their lives and their property, as to protect our 
own ? Is it not enough, that we freely open to them all the avenues 
to wealth and happiness that lie open to our own citizens ? Is it not 
enough, that we do all this for them, and do it, not in a grudging 
spirit, but out of a deep sympathy with their past misfortunes and 
unhappiness? — that henceforth we stand between them and want, — 
between them and their former oppressors, — between them and all 
the w rid ? 

Must we be expected to surrender our entire nationality to them, 
and to allow them to inoculate it with their customs, tastes, opinions, 
manners, and prejudices ? Must we be asked to give up all that we 
hold most dear, because, forsooth, in the nature of things, it cannot 
be as dear to them ? Must our hospitality become the means of its 
own destruction, and our generosity prevent the noble objects for 
which it is put forth ? 

A thousand times, No ! We may say to our foreign population, 
both in sympathy and sincerity, that they are no more than our 
guests ; we neither compelled nor invited them to come among us, 



308 A VOICE TO AMERICA. 

and we do not insist that they shall remain; we offer them equal 
protection with that given to our own citizens, and equal opportuni- 
for improving their condition. But it is for them to assimilate 
their ways of thinking to ours ; not for us to go over to them. If 
they are dissatisfied with our opinions, they are free to return again 
whence they came. But they shall never assume the management 
of our public affairs while they are yet foreign to us in spirit ; and 
we will insist on exercising the right of passing upon their qualifica- 
tions to a citizenship so fraught with high responsibilities. Short of 
this point, it is idle to think of stopping. To pause midway, is to 
invite untold disaster. 

In this country, the predominating race is the Anglo-American. 
It was that invigorating blood, which reddened the battle-fields of the 
Revolution. That race has stamped its mind upon the nation, and 
given it permanent character. That mind has built up our liberal in- 
stitutions, through which passes the course of all our national thought. 
It is the same heart that sends the life-giving blood through all the 
members of the vast political body. If other races have united with 
it, they have, of necessity, merged their individualities in its overpower- " 
iug current; they have forgotten themselves, ana fallen in with the 
wiil^ stream of American life and manners. It remains for the original 
Anglo-Americans alone, therefore, to go forward with the work of im- 
ing all national sentiments with their own bold and free pecu- 
liarities. They are the dominant race, to whom the possession of the 
continent has manifestly been delivered. Their native spirit belongs 
to the soil. It ha- been strengthened through the storms cf war. 
it will be nurtured in the long sunshine of peace. Its sceptre will 
not depart ; and it steadily r< acknowledg own ground 

any power coequal with its own. 

The national policy of our country mnst, above ail things be de- 
eided and strong, sine- \\w nature and objects of our commonwealth 
so widelj distincl from the policies of other nations. As a lonely 
r among savages musi fortify his home, and keep watch and v. 

insidious foe, so must our Republic preserve itself with. 



AMERICAN NATIONALITY. 309 

scrupulous care against the infectious assaults of foreign elements, 
incompatible with its prosperity or even with its existence. America 
demands the careful preservation of whatever has given us our na- 
tional prosperity. Americans must be Americans ; Americans must 
govern America. 

Under ordinary circumstances, a truth so obvious as this would 
hardly need assertion. But the true basis of our national existence 
and success, has for some years been studiously ignored and kept out 
of sight by a set of wily politicians, who, reckless of the means em- 
ployed, have only sought their private advantage. These agitators 
have pandered to the violent and lawless tendencies of a brutal for- 
eign immigration, for the sake of their votes. To win them, they 
have loudly proclaimed that America is the great receptacle for all 
fugitives ; scarcely making a distinction between fugitives from jus- 
tice, and fugitives from oppression. They have sought to convince 
these strangers that they had legislative rights in this country; 
and by such delusive appeals have, to a very great extent, suc- 
ceeded in managing the foreign vote, which, in the balanced condi- 
tion of parties, became a preponderant power. These operations have 
resulted in preposterous assumptions on the part of the immigrant 
population, in the degradation of the average character of our own 
rulers, and, to a lamentable extent, in forgetfulness of the true char- 
acteristics of our nationality. 

But a true nationalism, although not inconsistent with the broadest 
philanthropy, is altogether opposed to this spurious cosmopolitanism. 
The laws and foundations of our American freedom are peculiar and 
separate ; nor is any man fitted to govern under them, without an 
experimental training in them. This fallacious pretence of political 
benevolence, which studiously avoids mentioning either nationality or 
patriotism, and which enlarges with many windy generalities upon the 
human race, the equality of man, and the brotherhood of nations, is 
the merest sophism. Every man has some equal rights, among whicrF 
are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. But these must be 
sought by means not inconsistent with the general good. Nor has 

14* 



310 A VOICE TO AMERICA. 

the criminal equal rights with the lawful citizen. He has forfeited 
them. Nor has the beggar, who does not own a foot of land nor a 
suit of clothes, in fact, equal rights with the millionaire. He has not 
the right to use as much money or estate, until he gets them. He 
has the right to earn them, if he can, and then to use them. His 
attempt to use them without that preliminary, is robbery, or swind- 
ling. Degrees of intelligence and morality also determine what extent 
a man's rights shall have, in practice. What rights he is fit to use, 
he may have. This false cosmopolitanism which would grant equal 
rights in all respects to the ignorant and the wise, the barbarous and 
the enlightened — which would at once confer equal political privileges 
upon the educated, intelligent, and law-abiding American, and upon 
the foreign pauper and foreign criminal — upon the German, the Irish- 
man, and by parity of reasoning upon the Croat, the Turk, the Chinese, 
the Hindoo, the Hottentot, the Australian, the Andaman Islander, 
who crawls on all-fours like a beast, and has neither clothes, language, 
nor God, cannot meet with too severe a reproof, or too summary a 
condemnation. As well talk of equal liberty to the philosophic 
statesman or the lawyer, intrusted with the destinies of millions o"f 
men or the interest of millions of capital; and to the idiot, who can- 
not put his food into his mouth, nor hide his nakedness. 

Such dangerous principles have been so industriously inculcated, 
and have been so greedily accepted by the foreign population ; such 
a criminal apathy in regard to the preservation of political purity and 
the election of good men has prevailed among native citizens ; and 
foreign emissaries, lay "and clerical, are pushing such extended and 
powerfully contrived enterprises to grasp the control of our educational 
centres, our political organizations, all the springs of our national 
life, by schools, hierarchies, and the filthy dregs of European pri 
and almshouses, thai a great question is this day up before the people 
of the United States for determination— new at least in form, if not 
^n substance. Under the guidance of a truly patriotic feeling we 
must answer it. Clear-minded and 1 1 ue-hearted Americans are to-day 
called upon to decide a question tin- most momentous that has ever 



AMERICAN NATIONALITY. 311 

stirred the heart of the nation, since the struggle at its birth. It is 
no minor question of dollars and cents, no dispute between sections 
of the country, no dreamiDg discussion of abstractions or political 
theories, no question whether this, or that, or the other political measure 
will benefit the State ; but a question that underlies all these, the 
decision of which might possibly obviate any necessity of examining 
them — it is, Are we to have a policy at all ? Shall our American 
Empire, as established with its broad and deep foundations and its 
noble superstructure, cemented with the blood and the prayers of 
so many great and good men, yet exist ? Or shall it be mangled 
and corrupted, perverted and defiled, to suit the diabolic ends of lay 
and priestly plotters, either native or foreign born ? 

Here is a duty sublime enough to gratify the desires of the noblest. 
The appeal is made to the true sons of America. Shall our native 
land become a sink for the pollution of the civilized world ? Shall 
our government, organized with a most complex and delicate ma- 
chinery, expressly to be directed by the highest grade of intelligence, 
be controlled by the bungling hands of the foreign boor, or the med- 
dlesome cunning of the foreign priest ? Shall its wheels be clogged 
and embarrassed by shipments of men, sent hither, apparently, for no 
other reason than the deliberate intention of at once relieving Europe, 
and embarrassing us ? 

Let our freemen reflect. The pure stream of our nationality may 
perhaps endure the infusion of a little foreign matter without percepti- 
ble injury. Yet there is some injury ; and a continuance of this may 
corrupt the whole. Our power of resisting such influences is doubt- 
less great, but that is no reason for the wanton abuse of it. 

What then does the Republic now demand of Americans ? The 
answer is easy. It is not any new or strange doctrine ; it is only to 
restore the principles of action which heretofore have guided our best 
and greatest men. It is to rule our own country as Washington and 
the Revolutionary Fathers would have it ruled ; to cultivate and de- 
velop that strong and good nationality which has already carried us 
so nobly onward as a nation — to Americanize America, 



312 A VOICE TO AMERICA. 

What were the opinions of the Father of his Country as to the 
character of foreigners, and the probable consequences of employing 
them here ? 

He speaks as follows : " These men have no attachment nor ties to 
the country, further than interest binds them." "I do most devoutly 
wish that we had not a single foreigner among us, except the Marquis 
de La Fayette." "My opinion with respect to immigration is, that 
pt useful mechanics and some particular descriptions of men or 
professions, there is no need of encouragement." 

" It is not the policy of this country to employ aliens where it can 
be well avoided, either in civil or military walks of life." " It does 
not accord with the policy of this government to bestow offices, civil 
or military, upon foreigners, to the exclusion of our own citizens.'' 

Even for outpost service, among the rank and file of the army, 
Washington could trust none but Americans. " He therefore orders," 
reads a general order dated Cambridge, Headquarters, July 17, 1775, 
" that, for the future, none but natives of this country be placed on 
guard as sentinels on the outposts." 

Can any one doubt what Washington would now say, were he 
alive, as to the demands of an enlightened and nationalized patriotism 
in the present juncture ? And it is well known that his sentiment? 
and apprehensions were shared by his venerable coadjutors in found- 
ing this Republic. The profound and wise intellect of Daniel Web- 
ster perceived the same dangers, when he said, ten years since, "There 
is an imperative necessity for reforming the Naturalization Laws of the 
United States." 

There is, then, urgent occasion for the re-assertion of a strong and 
distinctive nationality by all true citizens of our Republic. In de- 
spite of the certain and venomous opposition of the demagogues, who 
will struggle violently, when "their crafl is in danger;" in despite of 
the anger and hull-headed resistance of the ignorant foreigners who 
have been trained by demagogues to imagine that the cherished fran- 
chises of American freemen are equally theirs; in spite of obloijuv 
and invective, the time has come for the sons of America to stand 



AMEBIC AN NATIONALITY. 313 

shoulder to shoulder in the defence of her free and enlightened Con- 
stitution, in opposition alike to the open and to the concealed attacks 
of ruthless foes. 

First, and chiefest of all, we must keep the privilege of citizenship 
as a precious and honorable gift only for those approved worthy of it- 
Let us not confer it upon the ignorant or the vile. Let us not cast 
pearls before swine. Why should we lavish upon the rude and vicious 
stranger the birthright of our free citizens ? In so doing, we nourish 
in our bosoms the viper that prepares to give the fatal sting. When 
the immigrants are fit for citizenship, then let them have it. Up to 
that time, let them rest secure in the refuge which we will give them, 
and be satisfied with their safety. We must educate them first, na- 
tionalize them next, but naturalize them only, last of all. 

We are also called upon to select and to elect as our rulers, not 
the men who bluster and prate of their principles and their devotion 
to the country, or the professional politicians who want office, but the 
purest and best men, without regard to their situation or business. 
They cannot, without dishonor, refuse the voice of their country. We 
can have them if we will. In the exercise of the powers of govern- 
ment by such men, we should soon see the safety of our institutions 
replaced upon its accustomed basis. Americans would again rule 
America, as in days gone by ; and while our great distinctive politi- 
cal beliefs would mark the character and conduct of our empire, we 
should continue to offer protection and freedom to all, and citizenship 
to the best. 

We must maintain the peculiarities of our social and civil life. 
We must maintain our Christian character as a nation. We must 
still enforce the observation of the Christian Sabbath. We must 
continue scrupulously to preserve the Church and the State separate 
from each other. We must again avow and maintain the Christi- 
anity of our public education. Shall children be taught here in 
heathen schools ? Shame on the defenders of such a measure ! 



NECESSITY OF AMERICAN HABITS AND PRINCIPLES. 

" This lovely land, this glorious liberty, these benign institutions, the dear purchase of our fathers, 
are ours ; ours to enjoy, ours to preserve, ours to transmit. Generations past and generations to 
come, hold us responsible for the sacred trust. Our fathers from behind admonish us with their 
anxious paternal voices, posterity calls out to us from the bosom of the future, the world turns hither 
its solicitous eye,— all, all conjure us to act wisely and faithfully in the relation which we sustain." 

Webster. 

Americans are frequently reminded that national sympathies are 
not to be eradicated ; that the Scot cannot be expected to bury those 
recollections which the songs of Burns so sadly recall ; nor can the 
exiled German shut out from his heart the feelings that will rise 
and swell at the mention of Fatherland, or the Swiss forget his wild 
mountain-home. These appeals come with irresistible power to 
every mind, and with none do they plead more loudly than with an 
American. 

We freely concede the force of these appeals ; for our heart would 
be false to its own instincts if it did not acknowledge their power. 
We would never ask our foreign friends, who seek amongst us an 
asylum from tyranny, or a home in which they may better their con- 
dition, to forego and keep out of sight any of those endeared associa- 
tions which give life its chief sweetness, and throw around it the 
highest charm. These recollections are sacred. They can never be 
torn from the human heart ; and that would be but a wretched pro- 
fession of liberty which allowed itself to interfere with their existence. 
Rather would a true liberty feed and foster these deep emotions, 
underlying, as they do, natures of the finest quality and the noblest 
capacity. 

But is it conceded, as yet, that such sentiments as these ought to 
supplant principles that embrace the happiness of a world in their 
comprehensiveness ? Do those who plead so touchingly for the exile, 



316 A VOICE TO AMERICA. 

believe that lie is to make no surrender of any of his feelings, nor 
even of any of his prejudices, in exchange for the inestimable privi- 
leges he here seeks to enjoy i Why has he left home, kindred, and 
friends, if not to avail himself of an advantage that is to outweigh 
every other? And are we to expect that such advantages are to be 
put aside for the sake of ministering to the pleasures of memory \ — 
that our fundamental principles are to be held as nothing, in order 
that emotions which stir an individual heart may have free course, 
even to the building up among us of new nationalities? With all 
due respect to the feelings by which our new foreign friends profess 
to be so deeply moved, such a course is absurd on their part, and 
inimical to our interests. 

We might, very naturally, discourse of the duty of naturalized 
citizens to adopt our habits and principles, before we thought of 
what the advantage would be to them. But our address is not now 
so much to those foreigners who come into our midst simply for a 
home and its many untold comforts, as it is to that portion who have 
become what is termed " naturalized ;" that is, who, like plants re- 
moved to another soil, are there to take root and thrive in common 
with all things else which that soil produces. They deliberately 
declare their intention to throw off all allegiance to, and connection 
with, foreign potentates, and bind themselves with a solemn oath so 
to do. As soon as the requisite period of probation Las elapsed — 
which is, indeed, a most indulgently brief one — by complying with 
certain forms, they are admitted to all the rights, privileges, and im- 
munities of American citizens. From that hour they stand on just 
the same footing with a native of the soil. Our laws throw around 
them the same sufficient protection — which, indeed, they did not fail 
to do before — the same opportunities He before them for bettering 
their worldly circumstances, and the same field is allowed them in 
which to Expand and develop their individual characters. < nir richly 
ondowed public schools are thrown open to their children, that they 
may go in with the sons and daughters of our citizens, and become, 
like them, candidates for any of the public trusts which may in after 



AMERICAN HABITS AND PRINCIPLES. 317 

years be imposed upon them. They find no restraint thrown upon 
their accustomed modes of worship, but are at liberty to do exactly 
as their consciences may dictate. In every direction, they find lib- 
erty in its largest sense. The single restraint upon it is, that what 
they enjoy shall in no wise conflict with the enjoyments of others. 
It is upon this simple principle of concession, of regard for the rights 
and privileges of our fellow- creatures, that all government exists ; and 
without such mutual concession, a government could not stand for a 
day. 

Such being the position of naturalized citizens, and such the lib- 
erality of the gifts' bestowed, it may well be inquired whether their 
very first duty is not to put themselves in the way of acquiring our 
habits, and obtaining the most intimate knowledge of, and insight 
into, our principles. The inquiry seems most natural. Indeed, the 
wonder rather is, why it should be made at all ; for, were it not for 
the strange course that popular events have taken, within a few years 
in this country, in reference to naturalized citizens, it would seem 
egregious to ask such a question at all. When an alien ^inquishes 
his obedience as a subject, and puts on the allegiance which we owe 
our country, he in fact becomes one of ourselves, and is supposed, by 
the very act, to declare that he admits his duty to be the same with 
ours. 

What else can this declaration which he has made, and this oath 
which he has taken, be supposed to mean ? If it have no meaning, 
then what the necessity of going through such a ceremony at all? 
But if the forms are invested with any thing like a purpose ; or any 
intention is thought to lurk within their limits, what can that purpose 
and intention be ? How shall we know, except by means of the very 
plain language which the alien, who is about to become naturalized, 
takes voluntarily upon his lips ? 

We should regard with the utmost aversion a native citizen who 
openly, or even by his conduct, professed to set at naught the solemn 
oath by which he bound himself to perform the duties of a citizen. 
We should brand such a person as a traitor to his country and its 



318 A VOICE TO AMERICA. 

interests, and lie would receive nothing but the anathemas and ex- 
ecrations of every true patriot. Naturalization is not simply a one- 
sided case of promising ; it is a matter of mutual obligation, wherein 
a citizen receives quite as much as he gives. It is a contract which 
cannot be dissolved except with the consent of both the parties con- 
cerned. Those two parties are — the great public on the one side, and 
the individual man on the other. 

No man understanding the rights and duties of American citizen- 
ship, ever could have thought he was at liberty to slight or overlook 
the requirements of a citizen. To imagine he may proceed so far as 
he finds it for his interest, but that when he is called on to make some 
few sacrifices for the sake of duty, he will retreat within his own self- 
ishness, disregard all the demands of the common interest upon him, 
and still call on government — which is with us but the expression and 
execution of the common welfare — to protect him intact from harm, 
is impossible and preposterous. No popular government could 
ever exist for a day on such a basis. The ground on which our polit- 
ical institutions rest is, that the general interest ought to take the. 
place of that merely individual. Every citizen, freely agreeing to 
this, is most certainly assured that his private interests will be abun- 
dantly protected ; and whatever concessions it may be needful for him 
to make in view of the public benefit, will be sure to return with large 
interest All private rights being merged in those of the many, the 
former acquire a new strength, are able to sustain themselves, and 
never fear conflict with those of any individual. 

We are hardly able to conceive how the majority of our natural- 
ized citizens look at these things in a different light from this. Those 
of them who may not do so, have yet the alphabet of political free- 
dom to learn. They have still to be taught, perhaps by hard expe- 
rience, that each individual can be free only where all are free; that 
respect tor others' rights by no means implies a loss of one's own priv- 
ileges; and that mutual concessions, instead of depriving any of indi- 
vidual liberty,are rather the means whereby that liberty may become 
'•r and more expansive. 



AMERICAN HABITS AND PRINCIPLES. 319 

When a foreigner, for the first time, styles himself an American 
citizen, he feels that he has come into possession of certain privileges 
that were never his before. He is a new man, in more respects than 
one ; he has cast off old alliances, and put on broad and new respon- 
sibilities. Henceforth, our schools are his schools ; our public halls, 
our rights at the ballot-box, our claims upon the protection of law, — ■ 
all are his as much as they are our own. It is but fair to suppose 
that he has come into this new arrangement, not with the sole idea ot 
personal and selfish advantage, but rather out of love for the princi- 
ples of our system. He must have an affection for those principles, 
because they allow him, as wel/ as others, to pursue his own highest 
happiness without hindrance of any description. 

If this, then, be the case — and it most assuredly ought to be with 
every honest naturalized citizen on our soil — how obvious are the ad- 
vantages that will grow out of the immediate adoption by those citi- 
zens, of our peculiar habits and modes of thought ? What a bless- 
ing it is to them, to come at once into a close and hearty realization 
of those principles for which they have professed so much affection ! 
How much richer, and broader, and deeper will be their share of our 
common inheritance, if they acquire an early possession, undivided by 
the lines of any ^lfish reservations, and retained with all the single- 
ness of feeling which belongs to the native born ? 

Taking the case of our common schools, for example, every natu- 
ralized citizen must feel that there is open to him a privilege which 
no other nation has ever offered to its people. In these schools, so 
amply endowed at the public cost, he finds instruction from well-qual- 
ified teachers for all his children. There they may be taught the ne- 
cessary branches of an education, which in after-life they can expand 
to any limit. They sit on the same benches with the children of our 
most worthy citizens. ISTo ideas of quality or rank are allowed to 
throw up the least barrier between them. They study from the same 
books, and are placed in the same divisions and classes. They com- 
pete for the same rewards, and are alike honored by the commenda- 
tion of instructors and the appreciation of the public. 



6W A VOICE TO AMERICA. 

Could any educational system be devised that would give wider 
freedom, or more extended privileges than this? Is there the least 
room for any man, however bigoted, to find fault with a plan of such 
generous comprehensiveness? If a naturalized citizen honestly wish 
to enjoy the boasted privileges which our institutions extend him, and 
bringing his children to the same enjoyment with himself, to have 
their minds educated and adapted to the realization of all our national 
advantages — both civil and social — by what more easy and direct 
method can it be done, than by taking advantage of our common 
schools ? If the foreign-born parent was first led, through pure admi- 
ration for our country and its institutions, to leave the place of his 
birth for our more favored land, assuredly he must be doubly anxious 
to secure for his offspring every one of those inestimable privileges, 
which, till now, he has never enjoyed. He will be watchful, lest 
some of them may be accidentally overlooked. Every thing that lies 
open for the common benefit, he will be specially strenuous to have a 
Bhare in. Intellectual advantages he will be particularly earnest in 
his endeavors to obtain ; and all facilities for better comprehending the 
principles and working of our system of government, he will not only 
take quick advantage of in his own person, but will likewise introduce 
his cliildren to, at the earliest moment within his rower. 

So far, we have only looked at the manner in which a natural- 
ized citizen should show himself consistent with the professions made 
at the time of his assuming citizenship. There is a point beyond 
tins; it is the way in which such a newly-made citizen can acquire 
an absolute advantage, by instantly conforming to the spirit of our 
institutions, and to our peculiar modes of thought. If the foreigner 
have had the sagacity to recognize, previously, the advantages of our 
system, it certainly cannot be very necessary, at this late day. to re- 
hearse to him what he already knows. Of course it must be sup- 
posed he had pondered this matter well before he took the first step; 
but having once joined the bands of brotherhood with us, he cannot 
be too forward or too earnesl in adapting himself, wholly and heart- 
ily, to those institutions, the high blessings of which he seeks to enjoy. 



AMERICAN HABITS AND PRINCIPLES. 321 

It would seem, too, most natural that a stranger who had deter- 
mined to east his lot with ours, should throw all his sympathies into 
the same channel with our own, — should closely scrutinize our habits, 
our principles, our institutions, — and show himself behind no other 
citizen in transfusing the spirit of his new nationality into his own 
individual feelings and thoughts. He must remember that ours is a 
government of the people ; of that large community he counts but 
one. All public affairs rest, for their maintenance and security, upon 
trie popular will. If the people are frivolous, thoughtless, guided by 
any less serious motive than the single one offeied by a sober and 
deliberate judgment, then the general interest must suffer accord- 
ingly. As one of the people — as a citizen among his fellow-citizens — 
our naturalized friend cannot fail to perceive that whatever is done 
by the popular voice, directly affects himself. Hence he is interested 
in all our laws, our customs, our habits of thought, and our institu- 
tions. He cannot remove himself away from our midst, and delib- 
erately declare that whatever may transpire, is all the same to him. 
He cannot conscientiously hold himself aloof, and say that he cares 
neither for this nor that law. As a citizen, he must care for every 
public transaction that bears upon the general welfare. Having once 
adopted certain responsibilities — invested at the time of his acquiring 
citizenship — it is out of his power, so long as he remains a citizen, to 
lav them aside on any pretence whatever. 

The sooner, too, he enters with his whole soul into the spirit of our 
American life, the sooner he will learn to love the new possession 
that has become his own. It will be easier for him, then, to note and 
understand the practical working of many things that before were 
little better than enigmas. As his interest increases, his affection 
will deepen. As he feels his own share of the common responsibility 
enlarge, he will likewise find the confidence of his new fellow-citizens 
abounding. Instead of being suspiciously pushed aside or overlooked, 
he will find himself openly welcomed, whilst thousands of generous 
hearts respond to the anxious beatings of his own. 

But let the naturalized citizen keep back these spontaneous irn- 



322 A VOICE TO AMERICA. 

pulses of his belter nature; let him say to L, [ will enjoy the 

full protection of their laws, but never will I subscribe to their spirit 
or principle," and matters immediately assume a very different as] 
Adopting such a course, he cuts himself off from his own rights, and 
further claim, either to the protection or the respect of 
all true American-. 

If such a one league with otters similarly disposed, and place 
himself at the direction of any man, or body of men, to compass meas- 
ures that are calculated to subvert the fair and open workings of our 
political system ; if this new organization, stretching from city to city, 
and from State to State, bind together its coi weave over and 

over its network of conspiracy, till it is thought that no human power, 
al or political, can break it in sunder ; if these men an ilth- 

ily, our common-school system, determined, by cajolery, by supplica- 
tion, by art, or, finally, by force, to overthrow this bulwark of liberty, — 
we are necessarily compelled to look about us in absolute disn 
hardly prepared for a demonstration of such magnitude and power, 
and perfectly at a loss to understand what may be the object aimed at. 
But the reaction will inevitably arrive. It must come, where all men 
are free ; nor can it long be delayed, where the people are the watch- 
ful and jealous guardians of their own liberties. It is but the fulfil- 
ment of the old law, that " they who sow the wind shall, in due time, 
reap the whirlwind." 

This it is that has called into life the active and repellent spirit of 
Americanism which is to-day sweeping, with the power and majesty 
of a tempest, over the length and breadth of our laud. Such unnat- 
ural and underhanded demonstrations were the only ones that could 
summon forth this sriant resistance to the enemies of American lib- 
erty. The naturalized citizen should read the lessou carefully, and 
ponder it with diligence ; for it teaches him but too emphatically 
what is the deep meaning of those principles which Americans pro- 
fess, and how completely ingrained they are in every true American 
heart. 



THE RIGHT. OF THE MAJORITY TO RULE. 

"And sovereign Law, the world's collected will, 
O'er thrones and globes elate, 
Sits empress — crowning good, repressing ill." 

Man was created for society : the necessity of laws for governing his 
relations to his fellows is, therefore, co-existent with his nature. No 
community ever existed, however savage or degraded, which did not 
acknowledge some of the elements of government. The products of 
the chase — the earth-hole used as a habitation — even the rude knife 
and spear, have their acknowledged owners, and any infringement of 
these rights, results in personal conflict. A little reflection leads us 
to the conclusion, that we have no individual rights which can be 
separated from our relations towards others ; for if selfishness could 
swallow up the whole being, then self-government was the original 
law, and man, in the enjoyment of the purposes of his existence, should 
live alone, and exterminate those about him ; yet this is not the case. 
The practical effect of such an assumption would result in destruction 
of the individual ; he would be outlawed even by savages, as quickly 
as he would be arrested and imprisoned among civilized people. A 
desire then for government grows out of the necessity of our being : it 
is an appetite as positive as that for food. 

The time necessarily occupied by the individual members of every 
community, in procuring subsistence, suggests, as a matter of economy 
and expediency, the delegation of the management of government to 
one or many ; and upon this necessity arise, not only the first forms of 
organized society, but, from the manner in which this authority is 
delegated, springs every possible form of government. 

Numberless absurd theories, sanctioned by " great names," have 



32tt A VOICE 'Lv AMERICA. 

been proposed to account for the first formation of government. 
Some declare it to be of Divine origin, and consequently a compact 
between the people and divinely appointed rulers. Opposed to this 
proposition, are those who believe it to be simply an agreement 
among the people themselves. 

To say that government exist.-, by Di\ ine power, is true in the gen- 
eral sense of all things existing by the same cause ; but we are not to 
stop at the threshold of inquiry by such a misapplication of a tru- 
ism. We are to consider how far that same Divine Authority decreed 
that man should be left to choose and fashion his political relations. 
The advocates of the Divine origin of government have always I 
the idolatrous worshippers of absolutism, and no outrage has ever been 
committed by tyrants upon the people, that has not had the profane 
endorsement — Divinely chosen rulers can do no wrong. But the wis- 
dom of those fathers of our country who established the Auk: 
Republic rejected such a theory, finding no Divine sanction for op- 
pression and wrong, and therefore set vigorously to work to extend 
the blessings of rational freedom, and to build up fortresses against 
encroaching power. 

In the history of nations and individuals which have pa- 
away, the idea that the only legitimate end of government is the 
public good, was confined to the breast of the philosopher, or an- 
nounced at the sacrifice of life by the patriot and reformer. Th 
ganized power of the oppressor was more than equal to the ui 
cipled assertors of so great a truth; but in our day, the example 
the American people have set of the beauty of the practical work- 
ings of this truth, has already had the effect to make its adoption 
almost universal, not only among reflecting mind.-, but among the 
governed of the gnat bulk of every enlightened population. To 
the people the importance of cherishing this idea, thai government 
is an implied contract, and not a Divine light, can hardly In- 
mated. It- simple conception is the beginning of political wisdom: 
a clear and comprehensive idea of ii in the mind of each individ- 
ual, is one of the best safeguards of our own free institutions. 



THE RIGHT OF THE MAJORITY TO RULE. 325 

Having decided that government is a compact, its operation, if 
consistent, must be to effect trie greatest good to the greatest num- 
ber. Hence it is evident that the rule of the majority is the clear- 
est expression of the cherished principle. To say that this rule is 
an imperative necessity, is harsh and unsatisfactory ; but to say that 
to pursue some determinate plan for a general happiness among 
the contradictory interests, opinions, and feelings of society — this 
rule of action is the most admirable, and most in harmony with 
those great general laws which bind together both the physical and 
moral world — then we shed light upon the reason of the rule, for 
that the principle grows out of the very nature of the best form of 
political existence. 

The rule of the majority is the only one calculated to secure the 
happiness of the whole, for there is rarely an exception in an intel- 
ligent community where the majority is not competent to take the 
best possible care of its own interests ; and the minority, having the 
full benefits of the prevailing laws, will be found, on examination, 
rather to sacrifice opinions and feelings than things of vital impor- 
tance. In the practical working of this principle in our govern- 
ment, it is noticeable that however the people may be agitated upon* 
any question — however, for the moment, the minority may feel 
aggrieved — the majority never becomes permanently fixed ; for in the 
constant changes of our rulers, every possible opportunity is afforded 
to correct errors or soften opposition, and the clamorous minority of 
to-day in a few short months finds itself triumphantly borne along 
on the breeze of popular favor. The keen and searching inquisition 
under which every scheme of public policy passes in a republican 
o-overnment, before it becomes " a law," may be said to test its value 
and practicability before it has a vital application. A universal 
agreement of opinion would soon degenerate into apathy, and apathy 
would pave the way for the foot of the oppressor. The opposition, 
therefore, of the minority is just as essential for the full understand- 
ing of our rights, as is the approbation of the majority necessary 
to give them legal force. The clash, in fine, of the minority and 

15 



326 A VOICE TO AMERICA. 

the majority, so far from marring the great design of civil institu- 
tions, contributes directly to advance it. 

In its e very-day workings, we find society insensibly separates 
into three divisions — the very rich, the people made comfortable by 
daily industry, and the poor. lS T ow the majority must ever be found 
amono- those who are successful laborers, and it will never yield to 
the assumptions of the wealthy, nor to the unreasonable desires of the 
very poor. Here then we find the rock against which vainly beat 
the pretensions of the parvenu, and the distinctions among those 
who would even demolish society for personal gain. And it will be 
found, that notwithstanding the public mind is occasionally clouded 
by threatening storms, or suffers from absolute outbreak, the solid 
interests of all are carefully guarded ; for this conservative majority 
is constantly recruited from the ranks of those who, but a short time 
previously, were among the poor ; whilst the pretensious rich, in the 
vicissitudes that attend the holding of property when no exclusive 
privileges are granted, sink out of sight before they can do any mate- 
rial injury by the misapplied use of their wealth. 

It is remarkable that a government of the majority has constantly 
set limitations upon the exercise of its own authority. The ruler, 
therefore, of a republic is constantly surrounding himself witli re- 
straints; while the ruler of a monarchy, a .-ingle individual, is con- 
stantlv extending the gratification of hi rs, and thus affords 

the best illustration of the fitness of the majority to rule. Consti- 
tutions, however, when majorities govern, are after all only written 
checks and limitation-, upon the of men, and are created by 

their powers without reference to the fact, whether they shall in the 
future fall into the party in the majority or in the minority. This 
conduct, so magnanimous, has its moral effect upon the minds 
men, for it is rarely that a faction attempts to violate the funda- 
mental law; or if ventured upon, it quickly retraces its steps. There 
are always in every majority a large number of persons who will 
not sacrifice to party what belongs to the country, and these indi- 
viduals are ever ready to abandon an oppressive majority, and by 



THE EIGHT OF THE MAJORITY TO RULE. 327 

going over to tlie minority, restore the balances of the written con 
stitution. 

In the history of our government it will be found that repeated 
attempts have been made by the legislatures of our States to violate 
their respective constitutions, and even that of the Federal Govern- 
ment. Every instance has proved abortive. So many people have 
instantly resented such an attempt, and abandoned the presumptuous 
party in power, as to render it incapable of doing injury, and the 
sober second thought of these revolutionists themselves, has caused 
them finally to seek redress only through, the legitimate channels of 
the laws. 

In the Federal Government the advantage afforded the minority 
is permanent. Much as the States may differ in relative size or 
population, they are equal in the Senate. The veto of the Execu- 
tive operates as a check in favor of the minority, for its immediate 
effect is always to defeat the will of the majority of the legislature. 
Another class of checks grows out of the distribution of the govern- 
ment into departments, thereby separating interests which are com- 
mon to all its parts from those which are exclusively local. Ano- 
ther very important security against excessive accumulation of power 
is the confinement of the Federal Government to the exercise of such 
powers as are expressly given to it by the constitution, and the re- 
tention of the remaining portion of sovereignty in the hands of the 
State Government. 

Such are a few of the most prominent instances of the radical 
importance and effective character of the checks or limitations which 
our majority constantly imposes upon the exercise of its own author- 
ity. They are yet more strongly illustrated in the formation of the 
constitutions of the new States, which, though founded upon the 
principle of universal suffrage, yet judiciously impose limitations upor 
the power of the majority, wherever believed to be necessary for the 
public weal. 

Yet all these checks and limitations, however wisely contrived, 
skilfully arranged, and harmoniously operative, are mere machinery. 



328 A VOICE TO AMERICA. 

Notwithstanding the wisdom of its arrangement, and the applicability 
of its construction, the instrument requires a judicious and energetic 
hand to wield it. Indeed, its very complexity and delicacy make the 
proper handling of it an impossibility to the ignorant. Neither our 
own, nor any other free government, could flourish or exist, unless 
controlled by checks and restraints exterior to, but necessaiy to the 
well-working of its machinery. The real safety of our government — 
its true security against oppression on the part of the majority, or 
rebellion from the minority — is no mere contrivance, no balancing of 
class against class, no reliance in selfish interests. It is something- 
stronger, safer, wiser than any or all of these : it is the uprightness 
and wisdom of an educated and Christian nation insuring the justice 
of the majority's decision, and the acquiescence of the remainder in 
their judgment. This, therefore, requires wisdom in our statesmen; 
it is this makes our country peaceful, happy, and prosperous, and pre- 
vents the wanton abuse of the constituted forms of government by a 
victorious majority. It is these moral checks which remove any 
apprehension on the part of the minority, and obviate any vindictive 
or illegal action, or even a passive resistance to measures honestly 
intended to promote the well-being of the whole community, however 
much they may fail to meet the views of a part. Such measures 
must be maintained or opposed, not from sinister or selfish motives, 
but from the unfeigned conviction that their retention or alteration 
will be for the good of the greatest number. 

Such is the course of every true citizen whose patriotism is not a 
mere name. A contrary action on a question pregnant with such 
mighty results, is certain to lead eventually to anarchy and revolu- 
tion. From parallel scenes of civil discord — the oppression of the 
weak, the tyranny of the many — there is a certain and dread alterna- 
tive, — an alternative destroying every hope of liberty, blighting the 
virtues of the soul and the powers of intellect, enthralling man in all 
the- darkness of mental slavery, but an alternative in which relief 
may still be found — an irremediable, a hopeless despotism. 



FREEDOM FROM FOREIGN INFLUENCE. 

" Our virtues 
Live in the interpretation of the times." 

Shakspeare. 

It is a preposterous assumption that any single class of our citizens 
are exempted from their civil responsibilities by reason of the religion 
which they may happen to profess. We are not able to understand 
why all the members of our vast commonwealth are not equally 
bound and equally interested in the preservation of the general 
safety. We cannot comprehend the rule by which one man must 
offer all his resources for the public good, while another, because 
of a different religious profession, may remit every exertion on the 
same behalf, as to him alone seems equitable or agreeable. Amer- 
ican citizens should permit no religious creed to teach them forget- 
fulness of their common country. They should spurn alliance with 
every cause which leads them to forego their love for the equal 
rights of all men. If they cannot stand together upon the broad 
platform of liberty for the whole human race, there is no hope left 
that humanity shall be benefited. 

Strange times, indeed, have we fallen upon, that demand of us a 
demonstration, to any portion of the American population, of the 
necessity of the duty of their most zealous support of the free system 
of government under which they live. Mighty revolutions must 
assuredly have been wrought in public sentiment, when American 
citizens are discovered to be forgetful of their obligations to the 
sacred cause of republican truth, and wilfully derelict to the high 
duty they owe to the country whose sufficient protection they are 
proud everywhere to claim. No domestic influence, germinating 
here on the blessed home-soil, could ever have been potent to pro- 



330 A VOICE TO AMERICA. 

duce a state of tilings so alarmingly fraught with mischief It could 
have arisen from the operation of none of those healthy principles 
with which our fathers wisely set in motion this comprehensive sys- 
tem of peace. Alien hatred is its real author, and foreign interfer- 
ence is its malicious progenitor. It was produced on a distant soil, 
and it is diligently sought now to be domesticated on this. It bears 
the brand of foreign iniquity on its forehead, and stands confessed a 
monster of too hideous a mien to be the product of the clime whose 
breezes all whisper of freedom. 

We will not pause to undertake the proof of what is already so 
transparently obvious, namely, that both Catholic and Protestant 
Americans are bound by an equal engagement to sustain the liberties 
of that country whose appointed guardians they are. It is a duty 
from which, while members of the great body of freemen, they can 
neither ask nor expect a release. The obligation is stamped too 
deeply on their souls ; it is ingrained with their nature, by the pro- 
cess of their early education ; and he must, in truth, cease entirely to 
be an American — openly cast off his allegiance altogether, and for- 
swear both the rights and the privileges of citizenship — who hopes, 
by any method, to absolve his conscience from the religious duty he 
owes to the country, either of his birth or adoption. 

But consenting, for the moment, to set the u of duty aside, 

we are left to estimate the measure of interest that should lead every 
citizen, of whatever religious creed, to strive to maintain American 
freedom intact from the taint' of foreign influence. Interest is some- 
times a powerful advocate, when duty cannot find a tongue. Fear 
often persuades, and moves to action, when a loftier motive feels its 
power paralyzed and gone. 

The better to understand the nature and extent of this common 
interest, it is necessary first to study the character of that influence 
from abroad, by whose threats and usurpations our free institutions 
are subjected to peril. The grounds of fear must be accurately ascer- 
tained, before the alarmed heart instinctively puts forth all its ener- 
gies for preservation. 



FREEDOM FROM FOREIGN INFLUENCE. 661 

No nation can achieve either character, influence, or power, unless 
it be founded and compacted on some particular principle. Monarchy 
builds on the principle that one man is better than his fellows, and 
possesses therefore an hereditary right to rule. Republicanism cher- 
ishes the heaven-born idea that all men are equal, and not only 
equal, but free — capable of self-control, and the safe direction of their 
own concerns and interests ; and, so dearly has this grand idea been 
cherished, that it has become an incorporated principle in the political 
system, and been employed as the corner-stone of the entire edifice 
of republicanism. Here, at the commencement, all absolute forms of 
government are at open issue with democracy. There is a fatal incon- 
gruity between them from the beginning. And not only so, but it is 
not possible for the influence of one of them to falter in its active 
progress, until it shall have finally succeeded in outrooting the other 
from existence. 

Foreign potentates are not blind to truths of such magnitude, 
looming ominously from the lessening horizon of their future. They 
understand that inactivity is destruction ; that silent acquiescence is 
worse than destruction ; for it is a humiliating confession of wrong, to 
the syllables of which they have never fashioned their lips. They start 
up with awakened fears and renewed energies. Watching the con- 
stant changes that occur in the political sky, they draw themselves 
secretly into closer companionship, each hating the other with the 
full measure of his heart's power, but hating the new influence even 
more. Considerations of safety weigh down thoughts of mere policy, 
and they swear to forget the smaller evils in the face of one they 
esteem far greater. It is selfishness that is working at the bottom ; 
but this selfishness is destined to perform an important work, — for it 
will be the most active element in the destruction of every system of 
government where Church and State are connected. The prophecy, 
even now, is in the progress of a literal fulfilment. 

Opposing republicanism on grounds like these, it is little to be 
expected that foreign powers will abate a jot or tittle of the intensity 
of that spirit of hatred which uniformly characterizes their action. 



332 A VOICE TO AMERK A 

Nor do they at any moment give evidence of its relaxation. If 
America but crosses the Gulf-Stream, their swiftest ships are on in i 
track. If she treats with a nation like Texas, they are there to 
whisper words of disaffection and discouragement. Our name is 
employed as a term of ridicule and reproach abroad, and our soil is 
considered only a fit lazar-house for the reception of all cases of 
political disease. We are styled the Botany Bay of the world, 
accepting every ingredient that is offered to help build up a wild and 
incongruous nation; and into our lap are poured the paupers, the 
convicts, the lazaroni, the assassins, and the vermin-eaten rabble, 
whose presence is a source of peril to governments whose duty 
to make proper provision for them. We contribute of our bourn - 
famishing nations, and yet are styled the most avaricious and grasp- 
ing of any on the face of the earth. Our march forward is one of 
peace alone ; yet are Ave charged with a spirit of piracy which befits 
only a nation wholly barbarous. If our representatives abroad con- 
vene to confer upon the highest interests of their common country, 
spies dog their steps, falsehoods hunt down their true purposes, their 
government is spoken of as an outlaw, and secret pledges are circu- 
lated to destroy its growing influence by whatever means, and a1 
however great a hazard. 

But this is only a superficial view of the matter. It is not altogether 
abroad — it is even on our own soil that foreign powers seek chiefly b 
do the work, the performance of which they have undertaken. Know- 
ing that if a battery is to be silenced it must be carried by a vigorous 
assault, and that in order to destroy a fortification a breach must first 
be made in the walls, they direct all their secret forces against that 
rnmenl which stands sponsor for free and liberal institutions. 
To cripple its power, to weaken its y, to obstruct and o 

throw its matured purposes, to turn its very farces against itself and 
thus give it the name of an insane suicide, — these are the obji 

are soughl with such an unmistakable eagerness, and the 
accomplishment of which would fill the world with the jubilations 
of tyranny. 



FREEDOM FROM FOREIGN INFLUENCE. 333 

To carry forward so gigantic a purpose, there is need of the co- 
operation of an equally gigantic power. Such ends are wrought but 
through the aid of mighty iustrurnentalities. Secrecy is likewise 
required to insure success, to mask the almost resistless energies of 
an attempt of such magnitude. Where was a power endowed with 
qualifications of so peculiar a character to be found? At whose 
bidding would it start up, mailed in its coat of impenetrable armor, 
and exclaim — " Here am I !" 

The needed power was already in existence. It was the ultramon- 
tane party of the Romish Church, whose Pope and prelates sprang 
forward with an alacrity that showed how welcome was the work. 
That Church holds almost complete ascendency in the Old World; 
her emissaries are prowliDg everywhere; she sustains an army of 
secret laborers — sappers and miners of true freedom — whose toils are 
never relaxed by favor, and never relieved by sleep ; her temporal 
head is ambitious only of rule, and her myriad children are com- 
manded only servile and unqualified obedience. Her whole history 
is at war with free aspirations of any kind or grade. ' Her principles 
are those of high-handed usurpation. The rack and the thumb-screw 
have been her barbarous instruments of discipline, — the bloody Inqui- 
sition has been the secret but terrible source of her power, — and the 
Confessional still remains the silent engine of its perpetuation. 

Foreio*n rulers, as a body, acknowledge the supremacy of that 
gigantic despotism. It is one which engulfs all others, making their 
assumptions appear even trifling in comparison with its own. Hence 
they consider its decrees inviolable. From its high court they expect 
no appeal. They, therefore, have plotted with it, and the fruits of 
their machinations they promise to the Mother Church. The head 
of that Church understands the plan, and forthwith sets himself to 
divide and conquer the fair realms of Liberty. The means are ample, 
and are all ready to his hand. Emigrants are coming in long and 
unbroken processions to America, all, or nearly all, the sheep of his 
fold. This vast mass will he secretly and silently congregate on our 
soil, not for the pure and lawful purposes of religion, but for the more 

15* 



334 A VOICE TO AMERICA. 

easy and rapid spread of his power, and the gratification of the foreign 
potentates who form the bulwark of his sovereignty. 

He delegates faithful messengers, who are appointed shepherds of 
his spreading flocks. Patiently and quietly they go about their 
work, carefully avoiding any irritation of the popular mind, seeking 
no conflict with any existing power, enduring in silence whatever 
reproach or contumely may overtake them, and striving continually 
for the attainment of a single end, the political as well as the spiritual 
supremacy of the Pope. This countless array of immigrants, though 
they may hate their former rulers never so intensely, nevertheless 
acknowledge obedience to the Pope and his prelates. That connec- 
tion it is not even thought of dissolving. Yet the rulers are but ready 
instruments in the hands of this Pope, — the Arch-Priest who is skil- 
fully intriguing for the perpetuation of their power, as well as his 
own. The connection which holds their interests together, is one that 
cannot be dissevered. 

By such a complex process is the overthrow of our institutions 
sought to be compassed. Tyranny first drives its beggared popula- 
tion from the land, to inhabit one of the fairest and freest promise : 
the Pope is the ally of tyrants, because it is through them alone that 
his ambition- ends are reached; and adherence to the Church of 
which the Pope is the visible head, is the. first condition needed to 
bring tin- success of both Popery and tyranny to its desired culmina- 
tion. They arc joined in an indissoluble league, and the same prin- 
ciple vitalizes both. In that union they will stand or fall together. 
Popery is a political system ; cunningly constructed, and energetically 
kept in - operation. Its ambition enclasps the globe. Its 

aims circumscribe all nations and all people. It works secretly, when 
openly might b rous; but for evermore it uvrfrs. Il 

know no relaxation. It is a gigantic potism; first 

sapping the course of free thought, and then appealing to the super-. 
stitious fears of the heart, whose sentiments are rendered unhealthy 
by its enchaining wiles. 

No wonder that the foreign powers who seek our destruction, 



FREEDOM FROM FOREIGN INFLUENCE. 335 

should apply for aid to the head of a system like this. They must 
have been forgetful of their own purpose, if they had passed it by. 
No wonder that they consent so unanimously to do the Pope's bid- 
ding, if he will but engage to perform a service in which they crave 
his effective assistance. He serves, by this means, both himself and 
them. He strengthens their power, and adds enormously to his own. 
If he can but rule in America, his supple minions will be no less 
satisfied than himself. They do not desire a new empire ; they care 
nothing for further self-aggrandizement, or the baubles of an authority 
that cannot fail to prove troublesome rather than profitable ; they do 
not seek to erect a new despotism, whose head they may, some day, 
become themselves : they only wish that there may be no America. 
This beacon-light of the world does but throw into deeper shadow 
the realms over which they bear rule. They would have it extin- 
guished forever ; and Popery has seriously undertaken the task, de- 
termined here, on American soil, to make its final stand, and fight 
its last battle. That great conflict, we firmly believe, is to be fought 
out in our own day. 

This is the nature of that foreign influence, exerted on our 
soil, which has awakened such alarming fears in these present times. 
The mask has been torn away ; the monster stands exposed before 
us. So far as Piomanism is only religious, it has equal rights with 
every other form of worship, and every other .creed in existence ; but 
the moment its aims become political, and it seeks aspiringly to 
bring the State in subjection to the Church, that moment it deserves, 
as a system, to be scouted from existence, and its pharisaical leaders 
to be deprived of that freedom whose interests they have so basely 
been laboring to betray. 

To check the inroad of such a system of despotism, Americans of 
all creeds are urged, by every possible consideration of safety, to 
apply themselves without delay. American Catholics may enjoy 
their religion, but they should never allow themselves to be used for 
the betrayal of their freedom. They must see, as the rest of us, that 
the reign of Romanism in this country through its deputed repre- 



336 A VOICE TO AMERU 

sentatives, is a relapse into the power of the self-same tyranny from 
which they have escaped. It must be plain, that whatever might be 
the loss to Protestants by the overthrow of our liberties, it would 
certainly be an equal misfortune to Catholics. Their interest is a 
common one with ours. We have no rights to lose by so appalling 
a misfortune, the privation of which would not cripple and injure 
them as well. All are bound up in one common destiny. All must 
know that they are to rise or fall together. 

The words of Washington burn in our memories at thoughts like 
these : " Against the insidious wiles of foreign influence, I conjure 
you to believe me, fellow-citizens, the jealousy of a free people ought 
to be constantly awake ; it is one of the most baneful foes of a repub- 
lican government." And the expressed fears of Jefferson must not 
be forgotten : " I hope we may rind some means, in future, of shield- 
ing ourselves from foreign influence, — political, commercial, or in 
whatever form it may be attempted. I wish there were an ocean 
of fire between this and the Old World." x\nd Madison added : 
" Foreign influence is a Grecian horse to the republic ; we cannot bt 
too careful t< its entrance." Warnings like these are not to 

be passed lightly by. Events have abundantly shown the far-se 
sagacity pf the fathers of the republic, and irrefragably prove that 
their fears were founded in wisdom. Americans must at this day 
give such warnings due heed, be their creed what it may. When 
;iv is menaced from without, it should arouse us all like the 
sound of a fire-bell in the night. 



THE ORIGIN OF POLITICAL POWER. 

"For what is freedom, but the unfettered use of all the powers which God, for use, has given?" 

Coleridge. 

National prosperity arises necessarily and only from intelligent 
freedom. Nations have ever been prosperous and strong, in propor- 
tion to their appreciation and wise use of liberty. All the Divine 
teachings, whether by revelation or by human example, have shown 
that the true basis of civil and political liberty — the true source and 
organization of civil and political power — are divinely ordained. The 
greatest happiness is always attained by those who live in closest ob- 
servance of all the divine laws of life ; and this is true of the di- 
vine law of political organization, as much as it is of the divine laws 
of bodily health or social happiness. 

To fulfil these conditions of happiness, men must think. Just as 
much as they are left to their own guidance, just so much they need 
to possess and to use the power of quickly discerning between right 
and wrong, truth and falsehood. From this truth it follows that we 
Americans, who live in the enjoyment of a freer exercise of our facul- 
ties, and under less restraints than are experienced by any other na- 
tion, need more than any other the full possession, and constant 
and active use of a thoughtful and foreseeing intelligence. 

The true basis of political power is the consent of the people gov- 
erned ; and in proportion to the wisdom of that consent is the wis- 
dom of the government, and the happiness and prosperity of the 
whole. It is a melancholy fact which might be adduced in reply to 
this statement, that so vast a majority of the human race has dwelt 
contentedly in darkness and chain*. But though true, it does not 



338 A VOICE TO AMERICA. 

militate against our argument. It only shows that their consent has 
not been wisely given. Nor lias any such nation ever attained to a 
true prosperity, or a true happiness. It is the consent of the gov- 
erned which has upheld all human governments, and the refusal 
or withdrawal of it has always overthrown them. As the nation, so 
is the government. The men have always made the ruler — not the 
ruler the men. The ruler has held his place by virtue of being an 
exponent of the national spirit ; by being such a man that the na- 
tional mind found in his actions its fullest and freest expression. 
This expression of the national mind, which has always controlled 
even the direst tyrannies, has found its freest, safest, and most digni- 
fied manifestation in our republic, the best form of government yet 
established on earth, — which arose, by the force of necessity, above 
forms and precedents, and whose vigor and vitality are sustained by 
a stern adherence to the original principle upon which it was con- 
structed, — where the majority speaks for the whole, without tyranny, 
and the minority acquiesces without rebellion — and the glorious 
result is a peaceful and happy unanimity. 

That the will of the governed, according to the design of the" 
Almighty, should constitute the substance of the government, is 
proved by the fact that aspirations after political freedom are an 
integral part of the human mind as created by God. Ignoranc 
we have remarked, may obscure this glowing thought, and may 
apparently quench its light ; but the capacity for desiring and enjoy- 
ing liberty is yet alive, and the innate longing sometimes bursts forth, 
like an unsuspected volcano, beneath the very feet of the tyrants who 
think that they have trodden out every spark of the sacred fire. We 

1 not prove this assertion to Americans. Every American 
the truth of it, and will recognize the principle in full operation as he 
looks into his own heart, or observes the actions of his fellow-citiz 

I'm God has revealed the truth o\' free political principles in other 
ways than by tins indistincl and feeble natural light. The revelation 
is implied often and necessarily, throughout the Biblical history of 
the Jewish constitution and its workings; and i! is once, at least, 



THE ORIGIN OF POLITICAL POWER. 339 

absolutely commanded to be proclaimed regularly, in so many worfls. 
No allegiance was sworn to any human ruler. The code revealed by 
God to Moses, was submitted to the people, according to the forms of 
pure democracy, and by them accepted and deliberately agreed on. 
"All that the Lord hath said," was their promise, " we will do, and 
be obedient." At the semi-centennial jubilee, there was a ceremoni- 
ous constitutional proclamation of freedom. At those periods it was 
expressly commanded, in words whose noble meaning and associa- 
tions are sacred in our own land, to " proclaim liberty throughout all 
the land, unto all the inhabitants thereof."* The whole Mosaic code 
was essentially popular in character. It was calculated to develop 
individual well-doing, and to permit only a minimum of litigation. 

The country was subdivided into the same sort of local jurisdic- 
tion as constitutes our " townships," and which is well known to be 
the strong and essential basis of all the machinery of our own repub- 
lican government. The people elected their own "selectmen," or 
municipal rulers. "Judges and officers," ran the command, " shalt 
thou make thee in all thy gates." There were captains of tens, and 
of fifties, and hundreds, and thousands ; and important disputes, upon 
appeal, were only occasionally, and in the last resort, to be decided 
by the leader of the nation. The general scheme of government, 
aside from their municipal authorities, consisted of the leader for the 
time being, a chief magistrate or judge, like Joshua ; the great San- 
hedrim, or assembly of the princes, instituted by Moses and discon- 
tinued under Herod ; and the great Assembly of the People, which 
wielded a supreme and predominating power. Popular movements 
even controlled the divinely appointed leader, thus nullifying the 
divine command. The Israelites forced Aaron to make them an idol. 
They all refused to enter Palestine, upon the report of the spies, 
although Moses desired them to do so. 

"When three of the tribes appeared to be designing to secede and 
establish a new commonwealth, the rest of the nation assembled at 

* These words were cast upon the old bell that hung in the State-House, in 
Philadelphia, at the time of the Declaration of Independence. 



340 A VOICE TO AMERICA. 

Shiloh, and in their governmental capacity sent Phineas and ten 
princes to treat ; preparing for immediate war in case of their failure. 
Joshua's last public act was to convene the assembly of the people, 
and to make a covenant with them before the Lord. When the 
Levite's wife had been abused by the people of Gibeah, the " whole 
congregation of Israel " met, and resolved upon war against the tribe 
of Benjamin. 

It is true that brief directions were early given for the conduct of 
their king, but with a cautious avoidance to recommend such an 
officer. And when the nation at last demanded one, Samuel earnestly 
and displeasedly remonstrated, with a forcible and careful explanation 
of the nature of the government they were requiring. And lie 
only ceased at the command of God, who distinctly attributes their 
monarchical tendency to the spread of irreligion, asserting that they 
were not rejecting the authority of Samuel, but of himself, Jeho- 
vah ; and he orders the prophet to comply with their foolish wish, 
saying, "Hearken unto the voice of the people," but only after 
solemn protest. Even then, it was the nation, assembled in conven- 
tion, that chose Saul, as they afterwards chose David. So they re- 
pudiated the heir, Kehoboam, who refused to agree to the sort of 
Magna Charta which they demanded of him, and chose Jeroboam 
ins!' 

The whole organization, indeed, of the Israelitish government, 
intended by God, was of the very freest and most popular kind. 
God told them to be free, gave them the means of being free. In 
proportion as they remained free, they were happy ; the chronicles 
of their kings are red with blood, or black with crime. Yet among 
their kings, 1 'avid and Solomon who were selected, one by God and 
the other by his father, on the ground of individual merit, and not 
by tin' hereditary righl which afterwards prevailed, were the be 
the kings. The surrender of this freedom which God had given to 
the Jews, was substantially the surrender of their prosperity and virtue. 
At once they ceased to bo freemen, and to be virtuous. Moses and 
Samuel, in foretelling to the nation the evil results of the renunciation 



THE ORIGIN OF POLITICAL POWER. 341 

of their liberty, emphatically stated that God would be displeased at 
the measure, and would not hear them ; that such renunciation was 
especially hateful to him ; that it aggravated all their guilt since they 
came out of Egypt. The Hebrews were often and long in the prac- 
tice of the true principles of civil liberty. Their Creator was their 
teacher, and their souls were elevated and purified by the virtue and 
prowess of their valiant chiefs and inspired prophet-poets — Moses, 
Joshua, Gideon, Samuel, David, and Solomon. When they forsook 
those principles, courage and success failed them together ; and they 
were conquered and dispersed into endless exile, by Assyrian and 
Babylonian armies. 

Thus it appears, both by the prosperous obedience and the fatal 
disobedience of the Jews to the divinely given free organic law of 
their national existence, that God revealed plainly and emphatically 
the truth, that the will of the people constituted the government ; 
that precisely as that will was upright and wise, or degraded and 
foolish, the government was good or bad, and the commonwealth 
prosperous or unprosperous. 

The whole of profane history is full of examples proving the same 
point. By the actual choice of the nations, or by their satisfied 
acquiescence, have the great majority of rulers been chosen. The 
Spartans chose their kings by vote for their ability to govern, to lead in 
war, to conquer. The Athenian, and, indeed, all the Greek States, 
elected their ordinary rulers, and likewise the leaders who com- 
manded their armies in extraordinary emergencies. Romulus was 
elected, as were his immediate successors. And when Tarquin un- 
dertook to govern despotically, Brutus and his fellow-freemen taught 
the tyrant a lesson, and established the Roman Republic. The popular 
will of the Romans chose not only their annual consuls, but also a 
dictator, putting the whole government for the time being into the 
hands of a Camillus or a Scipio, because only such a man could 
perform what the nation desired. The Franks and the Saxons, the 
Goths and Vandals, chose their leaders on the field of battle, or 
in the camp ; selecting the men who could lead most successfully 



3^2 A VOICE TO AMERICA. 

the national army, and so guide the popular will to fulfilment. The 
great Tartar tribes, the Huns who came into Europe, and the enor- 
mous hordes who from time to time have ravaged and conquered Asia, 
all in like manner chose their leaders on account of their fitness so 
to administer the concerns of the nation as to fulfil its wishes. The 
Turks and Saracens, while they made conquests, were commanded 
by chiefs chosen by the nation, or acquiesced under as suitable to 
govern it. The French dynasties have repeatedly perished for 
incapacity, and stronger men have founded others, with the consent 
of the people. Neither Meroveus, Pepin, nor Hugh Capet, could 
secure the inheritance of their throne to incapable men. AH the 
warlike leaders who descended upon the west and south of Europe, 
from Scandinavia, during the early part of the Middle Ages, were 
appointed by their followers, as were, indeed, the kings of the Scan- 
dinavian kingdoms. But the citations of individual cases would be 
endless. Always it has been either the actual selection of the people, 
or their satisfied acquiescence, which has supported the government. 
This popular appointment or permission may most often have been 
injudiciously made, — the acquiescence may have been that of the 
most stupid folly or sottish cowardice, — but such has been the i 

Emperors, kings, hereditary and usurping rulers, the governors of 
republics and monarchies and oligarchies alike, all have rested upon 
the support of the people. Whenever the government has become 
sufficiently disagreeable to the people to excite them to the proper 
point, it has fallen helplessly before their wrath. The thrones of ty- 
rants are proverbially unsafe. Most true was that bitter and famous 
jest of Dionysius with his flatterer : the sword hangs over the tyrant's 
head by a single hair. 

Freedom and intelligence have ever secured strength and i 
nations and to their members. The close phalanx of the Greeks, few 
in numbers but strong with the generous discipline of freedom, mowed 
down as grass the great Persian hosts. It was for such a reason that 
Cyrus the Younger trusted more in this ten thousand Creeks, than in 
alibis Asiatic hosts ; and in that immortal retreat of which Xenophon 



THE ORIGIN OF POLITICAL POWER. 343 

was first leader and then historian, through a thousand miles of hos- 
tile country not an enemy ventured to oppose them in battle array. 
The proud consciousness of such powers stimulated Agesilaus, with 
only thirty-six Spartans, and neither money nor influence, to levy war 
against Artaxerxes, the monarch of all Asia. Such powers carried 
Alexander and his Greeks conquering through a continent. Such 
power enabled the small Swiss republics to beat off the repeated at- 
tacks of the Austrian empire, and made the Dutch victorious over the 
veteran Spanish infantry, although commanded by the best generals in 
Europe. Such power has made England the first among the nations. 
Such power enabled the Old Thirteen Colonies to resist her ; and is 
making the empire of which they were the nucleus, first her rival, 
and then her superior. Free nations have never been conquered or 
resisted but with the extremest difficulty. No monarch could over- 
come Greece or Rome, as long as Greece and Rome were free. But 
with their loss of freedom declined their power ; and in proportion 
as they became enslaved and debauched at home, they were impotent 
abroad. The Romans, who trode down more kingdoms than any other 
single people, in losing liberty lost both vigor and virtue, and lived 
ignobly, content with partem et circenses — " bread and the circus." 

Thus liberty has not only strengthened the strong, and fortified 
the souls of the valiant, but it has always and everywhere breathed 
courage even into the timid, and supplied the feeble with strength. 

We have shown, then, that God, in three revelations, has revealed 
the truth, that government is properly the free exercise of the will of 
the people : 

I. By the consciousness of the truth, existing in the soul of all. 

II. By express inspired revelation to the Jews, and by definitely 
establishing such institutions among his own chosen people. 

III. By revelation to human reason, through the lessons of history. 
Man, therefore, was created by God to be free. As He created 

man upright, so He breathed this principle of freedom into his soul. 
And every disuse or loss of its exercise is owing, as all of our human 
imperfections are owing, to the " many inventions" that men have 



344 A VOICE TO AMERICA. 

" sought out." Liberty is a right given by God to every individual 
man. Free political institutions are of immediate divine origin. 
They are God's appointed means of insuring the utmost freedom of 
each citizen, together with the utmost prosperity and peace of the 
State. They are the gift of God ; and when men refuse that gift, 
they sutler the consequences. Freedom is the life and strength of 
the individual and of the State. Its prosperous exercise demands 
intelligence and union. Many causes have retarded its extension. 
Phvsical force has predominated in the earth. The apostles of free- 
dom have been silent or destroyed. Yet the basis of freedom exists 
in every human heart ; and wherever human nature is elevated, 
morally and intellectually, to a sufficiently lofty position, there free 
political institutions must necessarily follow. 

Free government is the legitimate government of the world. It 
is the one form of State authority which is founded upon the ever- 
lasting justice of God, which appeals to the universal conscience and 
consciousness of men. By virtue of the immortality of truth, we 
are bound to hope and expect that it will finally become the sole and 
universal government which shall exist on earth. 



MEXICO AND THE SOUTH AMERICAN STATES. 

" Progress, the growth of power, is the end and boon of liberty. Without this, a people may have 
the name, but want the substance and spirit of freedom." — Channing. 

The republics of Mexico and of Central and South America, when 
compared with the great Anglo-American republic, instead of pre- 
senting any analogy, exhibit a striking contrast in their political, 
social, and moral aspects. The question naturally suggests itself, 
What has produced this marked dissimilarity ? What have been the 
procuring causes that have rendered those States, possessing territo- 
ries more, extensive and more fertile than those of the United States 
at their original settlement, so weak and powerless ? The problem is 
not of difficult solution. 

Avarice and rapacity marked the career, in South America, of the 
colonial system of Spain. The interests of the colonists were sacri- 
ficed-; the spiritual tyranny of the Inquisition suppressed all freedom 
of thought or action ; and crushing monopoly stifled all attempts at 
domestic industry or commerce, — for it even denounced death against 
all who were detected in trafficking with foreigners, — whilst the vines 
and olives of Mexico were rooted out, that its inhabitants might be 
compelled to draw their supplies from Spain ; and the wheat which 
the colonists were forbidden to export, was applied to fill up the 
marshes. Not only did the Eomish priesthood control the bodies 
and souls of the Mexicans, but the crafty policy of old Spain kept 
them in the grossest ignorance and degradation. 

"Still promising 
Freedom, itself too sensual to be free, 
Poisons life's amities, and cheats the soul 
Of faith, and quiet hope, and all that lifts 
And all that soothes the spirit."— -Coleridge- 



346 A VOICE TO AMERICA. 

It was remarked by the Duke of Wellington, that, in all his expe- 
rience with Spanish official men, acquired during the Peninsular war, 
he met with hardly a single man whose abilities rose above the mean 
est order of mind. If this be their national characteristic, no wonder 
they prefer to perpetuate ignorance. 

The specious and subtle policy of Spain failed, however, in great 
part, of its accomplishment. Much of the precious metals became 
diverted to other countries, as fast as they were robbed from the 
natives of Hayti, Mexico, and Peru. Yet vast were the treasures 
that flowed into the exchequer of the haughty and sanguinary Span- 
iards. The cupidity of Spain seems only to have been equalled by 
her j)erfidy and cruelty. In order to retain conquests, the natives 
were exterminated. The spirit of her government was tyranny ; the 
discipline of her Church, persecution ; her moral of trade, monopoly. 
The long duration of these fallacies rendered them, in Spanish wis- 
dom, venerable. The Spaniards believed the precious treasures of the 
New World exhaustless. They imagined their power invincible : 
their ambition and pride exceeded all limits. But her haughty spirit 
was doomed to quail before her rivals ; and the pomp and chivalry 
of Spain, like her wealth and power, became the sacrifice required of 
her political crimes. 

In order to a right estimate of Mexican character, it will be nee 
sary to refer to the characteristics of the Aztec race prior to the 
conquest of Cortes.* Our historian, Prescott, here comes to our aid. 
r speaking of the romantic and legendary features of the con- 
st, he remarks : 

"Yrf we cannot regret the fall of an empire which did so little to 
promote the happiness of its subjects, or the real interests of human- 
ity. Notwithstanding the lustre thrown over its latter days by the 
glorious defence of its capital, by the mild munificence of Montezuma, 
and the dauntless heroism of Guatemozin, the Aztecs were emphatically 

* The ancient Mcxicanos were descendants of the Aztecas ; they assumed tho 
name of Mexicos, from Mexictl, that of their chief idol. Prior to the arrival ol 
the Spaniards, they lived under a kind of oligarchical government. 



MEXICO AND THE SOUTH AMERICAN" STATES. 347 

a fierce and brutal race, little calculated, in their best aspects, to excite 
our sympathy and regard. Their civilization, such as it was, was not 
their own, but reflected, perhaps imperfectly, from a race whom they 
had succeeded in the land. It was, in respect to the Aztecs, a gener- 
ous graft on a vicious stock, and could have brought no fruit to per- 
fection. They ruled over their wide domains with a sword, instead 
of a sceptre. They did nothing to ameliorate the condition or in any 
way promote the progress of their vassals. Their vassals were serfs, 
used only to minister to their pleasure, held in awe by armed gam- 
sons, ground to the dust by imposts in peace, by military conscrip- 
tions in War. 

" The Aztecs not only did not advance the condition of their vas- 
sals, but, morally speaking, they did much to degrade it. How can 
a nation, where human sacrifices prevail, and especially when com- 
bined with cannibalism, further the march of civilization ? How can 
the interests of humanity be consulted, where man is levelled to the 
ranks of the brutes that perish ? The influence of the Aztecs intro- 
duced their superstition into lands before unacquainted with it, or 
where, at least, it was not established in any great strength. The 
example of the capital was contagious. As the latter increased in 
opulence, the religious celebrations were conducted with still more 
terrible magnificence — in the same manner as the gladiatorial shows 
of the Romans increased in pomp with the increasing splendor of 
the capital. Men became familiar with scenes of horror, and the 
most loathsome abominations. Women and children, — the whole 
nation, — became familiar with and assisted at them. The heart was 
hardened ; the manners were made ferocious ; the feeble light of civ- 
ilization, transmitted from a milder race, was growing fainter and 
fainter, as thousands and thousands of miserable victims, throughout 
the empire, were yearly fattened in its cages, sacrificed on its altars, 
dressed and served at its banquets ! The whole land was converted 
into a vast human shamble ! The empire of the Aztecs did not fall 
before its time." 

" The American Indian has something peculiarly sensitive in his 



348 A VOICE TO AMEEICA. 

nature. He shrinks instinctively from the rude touch of a foreign 
hand. Even when this foreign influence comes in the form of civili- 
zation, he seems to sink and pine away beneath it. It has been so 
with the Mexicans. Under the Spanish domination, their numbers 
have silently melted away. Their energies are broken. They no 
longer tread their mountain-plains with the conscious independence 
of their ancestors. In their faltering step, and meek and melancholy 
aspect, we read the sad characters of the conquered race." 

The earliest insurrection of modern Mexico against Spanish rule, 
occurred in 1809, headed by Hidalgo and Allendo. Its real object 
was not, however, the establishment of a republic, but an abortive 
attempt to reserve to Ferdinand VH. a portion of his dominions, 
whose sovereignty in Spain had been alienated to France. Subse- 
quent commotions took place, when something like a democratic 
basis of government was projected, but rejected by Iturbide, who, in 
1822, was declared emperor by the people, but who, before a new 
order of government could be organized, was, as he deserved to be, 
deposed and banished ; — he was but a military usurper. 

In 1824, Mexico became a republic, and a federal constitution was 
adopted. General Victoria was elected the first President, and he 
has been succeeded by such men as Pedraza, Guerrero, Bustamente, 
Santa Anna, Herrera, and Paredes, as Presidents or 1 1 -. at best, 

with scarcely an exception, rival military adventurers. Actuated by 
no higher motives than those of personal aggrandizement, they mani- 
fested no patriotism above party purposes, and but little conscience 
above self-interest. Having no hold upon the affections of the peo- 
ple, they relied upon no security except military rule, and this was 
made subject to the greatest treachery, or to the greatest cunning. 

We have a glimpse of her political condition in the following: 

"The unfortunate, miserably governed Mexico, when she emerged 
from her revolution, had in her history nothing of representative gov- 
ernment, habeas corpus, or trial by jury; no progressive experiment 
tending to a glorious consummation; nothing bul a government call- 
itself free, with the leasl pi freedom in the world. 



MEXICO AND THE SOUTH AMERICAN STATES. 349 

Irad collected, since her independence, three hundred millions of dol- 
lars, and had unprofitably expended it all in putting up one revolution 
and putting down another, and in maintaining an army of forty 
thousand men, in time of peace, to keep the peace."'" 

The pictures we have of social life in Mexico are revolting to con- 
template. The Mexicans are, as a people, a nation of swindlers, 
thieves, and murderers. Their vacillating government has proved 
false to every sacred trust, has impoverished the country, debased the 
people, countenanced crime, engendered ' civil war, and tolerated 
treason. It has ignored all progress, neglected education, and dis- 
couraged domestic industry. The only party that thrives in the 
midst of all this moral desolation, is the Romish priesthood. To them 
belongs a large portion of the real wealth of the country. There 
are in the city of Mexico alone, some eight hundred secular, and 
about two thousand regular Romish clergy. They take care of the 
money, and do their -utmost to get it, even from the most abject, at 
the expense of suffering need. It is said there is more gross licen- 
tiousness and vice in Mexico than in any other country on the globe. 
The Romish Church has nowhere so corrupt a priesthood. What 
moral lesson are we to gather, then, from the republic of Mexico ? 
Is it not surprising that it has existed so long — so. racked with dis- 
cordant elements, and so effete and demoralized with crime ? 

Peru is believed to have been founded about the middle of the 
twelfth century, by Maneo Capac, the first of the race of the Incas. 
The Peruvians were in advance of other aboriginal tribes, having 
acquired some proficiency in architecture, sculpture, mining, agricul- 
ture, etc. They knew something of the arts, for they constructed 
suspension bridges over frightful ravines, although they had no im- 
plements of iron ; but their forefathers could move blocks of stone as 
huge as the sphinxes and Memnons of Egypt, and had an acquaint- 
ance with astronomy, several of the useful arts, and various domestic 
manufactures. They were pagans, and the ruins of their numer- 
ous temples and palaces are yet to be traced. The great Tem- 

* Daniel "Webster. 
16 



350 A VOICE TO AMERICA. 

pie of the Sun at Pachacamae, the palace and the fortress of the 
Incas, were connected together, so as to form one great building, 
about a mile and a half in circuit. Their code of civil and religious 
laws were favorable to morals ; and they did not, like others, sacrifice 
human victims to propitiate their deities. On the arrival of the 
Spaniards, in 1524, Huana Capac, the reigning Inca, and the four- 
teenth of his order, was made prisoner and perfidiously put to death 
by Pizarro, the discoverer of the country, although the poor caj 
had paid, according to the stipulation, as much gold for his ransom 
i add fill the place of his confinement ! Although Pizarro founded 
the city of Lima, and had thought himself secure, yet several insui 
tions ensued with various success, until the surrender and execution of 
the last of the Incas, in 1562, when the Spanish rule was established. 

The State founded by Pizarro remained a dependency on the Sp 
ish crown until r 1782, when an outbreak occurred, and the 

standard of independence was reared, around which the natives rallied 
with great spirit, and in great, numbers. For two years the war 
continued with alt access; the enterprise, however, finally 

suffered defeat. Bivfc these efforts were triumphant in 181 7, v, 
. San Martin; and in July, 1821, the independence of I 
mnlv pr 1, with San Martin i 

• 

ted, th'' I 
d, anarchy predoinin; I . in surrei o the 

Spanish partially disp#ss( 

Bolivar, and the Chilians; but Peru, though mish 

uga-tion, was hi, 

I to conflicti 
The history of Upper Peru, better km ivia, a nam 

derives from itsgreal deliverer — Bolivar— i . Previ< 

the battle of Ayachueo, in 1824, U formed a part vice- 

royalty of Buenos Ayres; but General : I the head of tl. 

puhlieans, having then d the royalist troops, the independence 

of the country was elleeted ; and in the following year, at the request 



MEXICO AND THE SOUTH AMERICAN STATES. 351 

of the people, Bolivar drew up its constitution. Soon, however, 
domestic factions sprung up, the purity of his motives were question- 
ed, and he was suspected of aiming at a perpetual dictatorship. He 
gave, however, a noble denial to these unjust imputations, by quelling 
the disturbances that affected the State, and then retiring to private 
life. For a time he was recalled to the exercise of the chief authority, 
till 1830, in which year his death occurred. The government is still 
in the hands of a President ; and it may be said this republic is, of 
all those of South America, the best as to its internal quiet and 
prosperity, for most of them are, indeed, republics but in name. 

It is needless to fatigue the reader with historic details of the several 
independent States and Confederacies of Central and South America. 
Grouping them together, we may sum up the whole by saying, that 
they have been but experiments towards freedom, and, without excep- 
tion, unsuccessful experiments. Knowing comparatively little of the 
sweets of real liberty, they seem to be not very ambitious for its 
attainment ; but a sluggish supineness renders them insensible to its 
value. An amusing illustration of this occurred not many years ago 
at Chili. At a dinner given to some officers of an American vessel on 
the fourth of July, one of our officers gave as a toast, " General Wash- 
ington," when a Chilian followed with " The hundred Washingtons of 
South America !" In the republics of South America, which pre- 
serve the blood and the indolent pride of the Spaniards, constitutions 
are destroyed hourly, by the will of some Dictator ; and the people, 
after a transient appearance in the career of civilization, fall back 
into the darkness of barbarism, and are not even conscious that they 
have been free for .a day. Society, in short, stumbles at the first step 
it attempts to take forward, and falls helpless at the entrance of that 
path in which modern civilization springs forward, radiant and 
proud, to the goal.* While we, in common with the civilized world, 
have been constructing our railroads and steamships, many of the 
natives of these States pursue the barbarous custom of travelling on 
the back of a man, or of a mule, and thus pursue journeys of several 

* Malte-Bruru 



352 A VOICE TO AMERICA. 

days across a stony and rugged country. Every species of social 
and moral degradation seems to prevail. The principal occupation 
of the wealthier class consists in doing nothing ; that of the majority 
something worse — surrendering themselves to filtiriness and vice. 

It has been already intimated that the superior progress in civili- 
zation of the United States is the fruit of the Protestant faith. It is 
to the refining, elevating, and hallowing influences of a pure Christi- 
anity, that we trace the high developments of social and civil order 
to which Protestant America has attained. The Bible is the bul- 
wark of a nation's safety and success. Need we proofs, we have the 
fact amply illustrated in the comparative civilizations of the northern 
and southern portions of our own continent. 

A few men land, one by one, on the shores of Xorth America, poor, 
humble, and unknown ; they bring with them but one book, the Bible; 
they open it on the rocky strand, and begin immediately to construct 
their infant community or commonwealth in accordance with its sa- 
cred order, subordinating all to its claims. Their sympathies and aims 
are one in the common faith, and hope of its teachings. Amid the 
frosts of winter, and on a rugged, sterile soil, yet are they all undis- ' 
mayed. 

" See the calmness and boldness of these men : we discover in the 
constitution of this rising empire, the fire of Luther united with the 
coolness of Calvin. Fancy pictures the scene all glowing with Chris- 
tian beauty and heroism ; with the sound of the axe and hammer, 
mingles the chant of a psalm. Their firm faith in the favor of their 
God renders them indifferent to dread of the desolate wilderness. 
The light of Heaven sanctifies their toil ; and by a sort of social mir- 
acle the wilderness, and the solitary place, is made to blossom as the 
rose. Where once was the rude wigwam of the savage, we now be- 
hold thousands of cities, towns, and hamlets, filled with the abodes of 
peace and plenty. 

" Look we on another picture. The proud monarchy of Spain sends 
her stately viceroy and armament, accompanied with the sanctions and 
pomp of Rome, to a country and a clime of luxuriant fertility, and which 



MEXICO AND THE SOUTH AMERICAN" STATES. 353 

is known to abound in the precious rnetals. As if to render the contrast 
of circumstances the more convincing, nature herself seems to echo 
to her Maker's voice. In order that the test may be the more decisive, 
every physical advantage seems to be in favor of the mission of Eo- 
manism. But while all around is grand and gigantic, glowing with 
exuberant life and fertility, man is here in weakness, imbecility, and 
vice. He is under the vassalage of a spiritual thraldom, which effect- 
ually prevents the development of his moral and intellectual nature. 
To all the noble incentives to action he is alike indifferent ; he is the 
victim of supineness, indolence, and immorality. 

" What means this wondrous sterility in a new world, except that 
the idea brought thither had given elsewhere all its fruit ; that Ro- 
manism, essentially conservative during three ages, has lost power of 
impulse — the creative spirit ; and that, henceforth, she is incapable of 
giving to the wide expanse the word alone pregnant of a new social 
world ; that her soul, imprisoned in the cathedrals of the mediaeval 
ages, has no longer the strength of divine tempests to purify chaos and 
baptize continents. 

" Let these nations of the South do what they will, they end inevi- 
tably by realizing in their government the ideal which they have in- 
scribed on their state religion, that is, absolute power. All they can 
do is to change dictators, and thus we see them succeed in nothing 
but in tightening the bands of their thraldom. Progressive punish- 
ment ! South America lies as it were at the foot of a vast upas-tree, 
ever distilling its torpor, while the trunk, rooted in another continent, 
remains visible."* 

" The Spaniards, in spite of unexampled barbarities, which have 
covered them with lasting shame, have not succeeded in exterminat- 
ing the Indian race, nor even in hindering their sharing their rights. 
The Americans of the United States have attained this double result, 
with a wonderful facility ; quietly, legally, philanthropically, without 
bloodshed, without violating, in the eyes of the world, any of the 
great principles of morality."! 

* M. Quinet. t De Tocqueville. 



354 A VOICE TO AMERICA. 

If respect for its laws be the test of the morality of a country, tho 
South American States will 1 ly bankrupt in this par- 

ticular : for hard Lot the witness of th 

tion iitical offender, while "the United States of N 

Ami rites M. De Tocqueville, "is, I think, the only country 

upon earth, where, for the last fifty years, not a single individual has 
been put to death for political crimes. There is not a single manu- 
factory in Buenos Ayres that takes advantage of the products of the 
soil :.thus the country grows poorer and poorer/- It is the san 
all the republics of South America. The laws are wholly ino] 
live to suppress crime, consequently vices of the most hideous and 

king character obtain to an ala stent. The social : 

tions of life are in a state of moral putrefaction — the most extreme 
licentiousness prevails, and society exists only in name ; its phages are 
as dark and degraded as in pagan lands. What a fearful responsibil- 
itv, then, must attach to that pretended system of religion which, 
having absolute will over the minds and property of the pe 
sanction and perpetuate such a state of thin 

The South American "republics" teach the people of the United 
States the evils of a corrupt religion connected with the State, and 

•ils. En nth witrn 

e one of 
objec 

in fraternal I executions constantly ta : . and the 

patriot, and the ignorant victim of d are shot like 

dogs, am I to the earth. The imagination cannot compre- 

hend ure of these com year to fall lower 

i' civilization. ad the I 

5, but tl: 

— t! the Roman Church. 

*M. ay. 



AMERICA, THE THEATRE OF THE GREAT 
DEMONSTRATION. 

<l Into tlie full enjoyment of all which Europe has reached only through such slow and painful 
steps, we sprang at once, by the Declaration of Independence, and by the establishment of free 
representative government ; government, borrowing more or less from the models of other freo 
. but strengthened, secured, and improved iu their symmetry, and deepened in their founda- 
tion, by those great men of our own country, whose names will be as familiar to future times as 
if they were written on the arch of the sky. : '— 

It must strike every reflective mind, that ours is no history of 
mere chance, or even of simple fortune. This gigantic country, 
stretched between so many parallels of latitude, its shores washed 
be two great oceans of the worffi, its past so wonderful, its pres- 
ent so great with mighty promises, — this America does not exist 
without a purpose, as if the careless hand of Chance had origi- 
nated it, with no designed place among the other countries of the 
world, and no grand promise to perform for the regeneration of man- 
kind. It is not possible, even for him who affects to disbelieve in 
the providence and the power of a God. to imagine that an exist- 
ence like ours ever sprung out of the chaos of accident, or was the 
unlooked-for fruit of circumstances which never felt the guidance of 
a Supreme, controlling hand. 

That we are specially deputed to begin and to carry out success- 
fully the greatest social and political problem in the world's destiny, 
is enough to fill the breast of every man with hope-felt determina- 
tion, for it commands our thoughts, our energies, and our faith. The 
sooner our citizens recognize this feeling, the speedier and the more 
energetic must be the steps in that great demonstration in which we 
are certainly the accredited principals. If individuals have a destiny 
! :ed out for them, suited to the inclinations and endowments of 
their natures, — must it not be equally true that nations, made up 



356 A VOICE TO AMERICA. 

of vast masses of individuals, with all these same endowments and 
inclinations, have as large a share in the plans of that Providence 
which both rules and loves the world ? 

In our country, all things are new ; and we ought heartily to thank 
God for having cast our lot, with this mighty experiment, too, in our 
keeping, in a locality where the fetters that belong to an old and 
effete society are not known. We often speak of our vast virgin 
soil, hiding nutriment enough in its bosom to sustain the entire 
population of our globe ; but have we not as good cause to boast 
of that fresh and. virgin-like way of thought, and that childlike and 
impulsive style of sentiment, which hitherto has made the despots 
and proud nobles of the Old World regard us with ineffable disgust, 
but which is now beginning to challenge real respect and admiration 
everywhere ? 

Yes, — let us thank God that with us, in this experiment on which 
we have entered, all things are* new. Let us sing praises that we 
are neither hemmed in by any other tyranny than what we are free 
to impose upon ourselves, nor made timid by any of those eternal 
suspicions which rob older nations of their energy and their peace. 

It is sufficiently apparent to even the least attentive observer, that 
the masses of Europe are ■ fast growing restive under the old yokes 
and dominions ; that the instinctive sentiment of manhood is rapidly 
rising and overgrowing every other idea in the breasts of the gov- 
erned ; that the millions of silent subjects in Europe are expectant 
of a dawn that shall call on them to rise from their sleep to the free- 
dom of a glorious day. Who can tell how much of this is the natu- 
ral result of our own quiet and dignified example ? Or who will say 
how much these events in the world have, under God, been hastened 
by th<' steady and silent illumination which we have been offering 
for now three-fourths of a century I Such things as these are evi- 
dences enough of the depth of the sentiment of freedom, native in 
all breasts ; as well as of the strength of that influence which our 
own country must of necessity exert wherever her institutions are 
generally known. 



THE GREAT DEMONSTRATION. 357 

The past history of the world points with an unerring finger to 
America as the nation where all its old, and bloody, and unhappy 
experiences, are to be spoken of only as things belonging to darker 
times, to clouded intellects, and corrupt hearts ; where what was 
bad is forever to be put behind us, and what is good is forever to 
allure us along ; where oppression shall cease to be the law, and 
freedom no longer be the exception ; where those true and lofty senti- 
ments which belong to the human race, are henceforth to be allowed 
room for indefinite expansion ; where government is to cease to be a 
crushing process upon the integrity of the heart and intellect, but is 
to take its very root and sustenance in the intelligent consent of those 
who are governed ; and where the great truth, that peace is the natu- 
ral political condition of the human family, and love is the loftiest 
and most absolute law, is to be not simply propounded, but proved. 

Such are the important truths to the existence of which we, as a 
people, are to testify. This is the time for us to bear willing testi- 
mony, as we are the nation to whom the responsibility has been in- 
trusted. Whether we will or no, our destiny, our history, our na- 
ture, our geographical position, our very inclinations, — all conspire 
to point us to our duty. 

If we will but take the map and glance at the present geographi- 
cal boundaries of our country, we shall see in a moment what a wide 
field for carrying forward this great political experiment we are in pos- 
session of. We people a variety of climates, such as no other nation 
on the face of the earth ever held direct ownership in. Our soil is 
calculated to furnish all the productions needed for the comfort and 
sustenance of man. We lie between the extreme latitudes of the 
temperate belt of the earth's surface, — a position of infinite conse- 
quence, when considered in connection with the world's past history ; 
for it has been said with truth, that in none but temperate climates 
have the great deeds of human history been performed. The state- 
ment is well worth serious thought : it is, that nations only that are 
occupants of the temperate regions of the northern hemisphere, ever 
governed the world. 

16* 



358 A VOICE TO AMEBIC. 

Let us see how such a statement is supported by fa< 
Below ic of Capricorn, there is hardly enoi; irica to 

een the two 
and has never brought « dd's 

dn- the Arctic Circle, th 
i the world ; nor, in fac . ever been at all dif- 

ferent through the whole course of history. Only one almost eternal 
winte , against the long torpor of which men have but a very, 

brief time to make provision, and during which term, all life, whether 
physical or spiritual, seems wrapped in fatal lethargy. 

,- lV , if we these two c of the earth's surface, and 

come within the limits that ■hically form the temperate z< 

we find, in the first place, Asia, with a population of from five to six 
hundred millions, swarming, like bees in a busy hive. What great 
events in the drama of the world's history has not A light 

forth ? On her prolific soil was set the cradle of mankind ; there 
Christ was born, there he delivered his message of love to mankind, 
and there was he at length crucified. There, too, were the great and 
powerful cities of antiquity ; there lived and reigned David and Sol-' 
omon ; there spake the Apostles and the Prophets. The arts first 

ir existence the; 
In A 
them to seek shorter routes to tl 

In Europe, the illustration is still n oplete. Tb 

population numbering about two hu millions, of vari- 

3. In n cription — physi- 

cal, i ual, or purely spirit': 

licli. " l i Q ce our re 

f t: a. 11 others of the 

Old World. 

noughts on this . Of 

the world's great poets, who has not 1. Homer? 

Of tors, to whom are not the names of Demosthenes and 

rates? of 



THE GEEAT DElIOXkTRATION. 359 

Aristotle ? of Alexander ? And to whose ears are not the sounds of 
both Caesar and Brutus like " household words ?" 

But such an historical recital is needless. Every intelligent Ameri- 
can citizen is well aware of the truth of these things, and how forcibly 
they bear on the point which we design to illustrate. All tend to show 
that over this belt of the temperate zone have passed, from the begin- 
ning, the power, the energy, and the promise of the world's final 
exaltation and redemption. 

Exactly within this same favored limit, lies our own country. The 
United States of North America form a new nation in the history of 
the world. We are a people, likewise, whose government, both in its 
form and principles, is wholly peculiar. Nothing like it has the 
world ever seen or known before. In developing the details of such 
a form of government, we certainly have shown ourselves, thus far, 
both apt and energetic— shrinking from no responsibilities, and rising 
to the heights of heroism itself by the mere force and fulness of faith 
in our destiny. Having sprung from a race peculiarly educated, by 
means of the experiences of the . generations gone before, we were 
first fitted, by this wise dispensation of Providence, for the reception 
of the broad and deep principles which pertain to our civil existence. 

We have, then, to say, in the first place, respecting ourselves, that 
thouo-h perhaps as yet behind some of the European countries in par- 
ticular fields of s^ence, or literature, or general learning, we may, 
nevertheless .^nallenge the whole world in fair comparison with our 
people for general intelligence, for intellectual activity, for practical 
learnico-, for bold and comprehensive thought, and for striking and 
^cero-etic action. The Americans combine elements in their charac- 
ter that no people, as a whole, ever possessed before. No sooner 
does a new or progressive idea become born in their brain, than it 
is forced into the notice and approbation of the world. 

See how we cut the waters of rivers thousands of miles long, and 
plough our way majestically across the stormiest ocean of the globe. 
Count up the almost interminable lines of railroad over which steam 
is made to whirl us every day, and destined yet to lace a continent 



360 A VOICE TO AMERICA. 

many times across. See with what overwhelming yet steady energy 
we tunnel mountains, skirt fearful precipices, fly over rolling prairies, 
and drive on with a noise of thunder to the extreme boundaries of 
the broad continent. All this, too, the work of a small cycle of 
years. And our experiments with electricity — what amazing won- 
ders have been wrought in the briefest breath of time ! The world 
may well look on astonished, though it hardly fills us at home with 
the same emotion. We comprehend now the answer to the sublime 
question put to Job : "Canst thou send lightnings, that they may 
go, and say unto thee, ' Here we are !' " And we feel that this is 
all but an experiment as yet, and so toil earnestly on after new victo- 
ries, and the achievement of still grander successes. "We are not yet 
content with this ; we are content with nothing. Our action is fully up 
with our national motto, that watchword of the future — " Onward !" 

We have conquered earth, air, water, and lightning successively. 
We have taught mankind how all things were at the first designed 
for their happiness and comfort, and that nothing was wanting but 
ingenuity and energy to unlock the. hidden treasures of a globe. 
Our material greatness is not paralleled by that of any nation in 
existence. Wealth has flooded our coffers, and enabled us gener- 
ously to offer a helping hand to the less fortunate ones of the world. 
Power has consequently increased, until we are acknowledged to be 
one of the great nations of Christendom — a naticm on which are fixed 
the eager eyes of all mankind. And, to carry out the point still fur- 
ther, our population has increased in a ratio that seems redly incom- 
prehensible. The mind itself is hardly rapid enough to keep pace 
with the facts thus presented. It cannot be very long, at the present 
ratio of increase, before we shall have a population on our soil denser 
even than that which makes old China the standing wonder of the 
earth. And this crowded and busy people, alive to the vanquishment 
of time, space, and matter, must be the people from whose midst will 
go forth the manifold iniluences that are to subjugate all men and all 
things to their high sway. We do not contend that this new gov- 
ernment will be in any way related to the tyrannies that have hith- 



THE GEE AT DEMONSTRATION. 361 

erto cast nothing but gloomy shadows over the hearts of mankind ; 
nor that it is to seize hold of men and compel them to obey, or even 
to believe ; but that in such a government will reside the spirit and 
essence of freedom, more than any other element, — that it will bring 
all men eventually out of political darkness into a world of mental 
light, — that it will succeed everywhere in establishing and vindica- 
ting individual manhood, — and that, with their native rights restored 
to them, men will at once feel new responsibilities, and assert their 
true claims to all that is high, and great, and holy in their nature. 

This is plainly our mission. Is it not one of unsurpassed grandeur, 
both in itself and its results ? Power for ages has gradually been 
moving westward, exactly through this geographical belt of the earth. 
Each successive step has been attended with still more important 
results. Every westward remove of this power has been marked 
with the burning of a still brighter light, and has left behind it a 
still more luminous track for mankind to gaze upon. It has now 
struck the Atlantic shore of North America, and, in a space of time 
almost incredible, has pushed its rapid way to the Pacific boundary. 
When it leaps that ocean, it gets back on its old ground again, and 
thus in its course the highest form of civilization has girdled the 
world. 

Young and vigorous as America is, its youth and vigor are not to 
be wasted in dreams. Nor is there much fear, either, that such will 
be the case. Some timidly caution us against going " too fast," pro- 
fessing ignorance of where our destiny may lead us. That, however, 
seems plain enough to a mind possessed of true faith. Our course is 
clear ; our mistakes are soon corrected by the aid of experience ; our 
successes overwhelm the warnings of the hopeless, and bid us on. 

We see, then, that the United States offer the field for the fair 
trial of this great experiment of man. The experiment is, — to learn 
whether men are of more worth than things ; and if autocracies, 
and monarchies, and all tyrannies, — disguise them as you may, — 
are not violent usurpations of the very laws of existence. Upon 
our fortunes rests the destinv of the world. Our success and our 



362 A VOICE TO AMERK 

example are making all peoples restive ; our moral strength is more 
powerful than fleets, more dr< .ants than unnu. ;nen 

in arms. We are to conquer, but not by We are to 

subjugate, but not by violence. All nations are to come under the 

y of our principles, but never are they to pass under any y 
All is to be freedom and light, and the eye is to see rly as at 

the noonday. Whatever is done, will be done in the direction of a 
single purpose : and that is, the emancipation of our race. We are 
not working for mere wealth ; nor position ; nor social consideration ; 
but while laboring for all these, we are insensibly helping on the 
great cause, and solving the grand problem of a world's freedom. 
America — not even yet thinly populated — is the battle-field wL 
the contest is waged between the armies of freedom and tyranny, 
Every sign points to this imposing fact. Here the last great 01 
must be made by the phalanxes of darkness, bigotry, illiberality, and 
bondages of all descriptions ; and, under God, if Ameri but 

true to themselves and their principles, here will occur a . glorious 
victory for freedom and truth — a victory having the regeneration of 
man for its object, and the happiness of the universe for its result. 



Secret political associations, 

THEIR USE AND ABUSE 



" A proper secrecy is the only mystery of able men : mystery is the only secrecy of weak and 
cunning- ones." — Chesterfield. 

' A fool's mouth is his destruction."— Solomon-. 



A great outcry has, of late, been raised against the use of Secrecy 
in political organization and action. It seems to be taken for granted 
that a secret mode of operation is sufficient to condemn the operator 
and his work, with all honest men. The prevailing mode of discuss- 
ing the question is so very shallow and insufficient, that we shall here 
mpt to put it in its proper light, by considering the principle of 

recy in human action, and secret practices in American politics. 

Very little argument is needed to prove, in general, that Secrecy, 
m itself, is of an indifferent quality, neither right nor wrong ; and 
that it is only the use or abuse of it which renders it good or bad. 
Christ himself expressly enjoined secrecy in the performance of good 
deeds, with a force which he could not express, except by the Oriental 
hyperbole of commanding that the left hand should not know the 
doings of the right. Neither such actions, nor the personal religious 
exercises of his disciples, were to be spoken of or known farther than 
was unavoidable. Swell concealment was practised by the Great 
Master jiimself. Again ; how many human beings would like to be 
deprived of the use of secrecy ? What would become of the shrewd 
enterprises of business men, if they could not keep their secrets until 
they are ripe? How endurable* would it be to men in general, to 



364: A VOICE TO AMERICA. 

know that all their memories and all their hopes — the faults they 
would lain forget, and the plans they would fain pursue — were to be 
seen and known of all men? As loug as there are individual in- 
terests and human imperfections, so long must secrecy he an indis- 
pensable ingredient of human life. If the world were perfect — which 
would make it heaven — secrecy would be needless. Until then, it is 
not only proper and useful, but absolutely indispensable ; although, 
like every thing else, it may be perverted to wrong uses. 

Without further inquiry into a truth so abstract, and so unlikely 
to be denied, the proposition may now be laid down, that Reforms 
(real or pretended) directed against powerful existing interests, begin 
with Secrecy. Secrecy was the cradle of Christianity — the greatest 
Reform movement the world ever saw. Christ himself trusted in his 
Divinity ; and knew that before his time no hands would be laid on 
him. Yet how often did he conceal himself from his enemies, once 
even by a direct exercise of miraculous power ? And after his death, 
it is a fact as notorious as any in the whole range of history, that 
without a practice of concealment more elaborate and profound, 
perhaps, than any other ever known, the new-born faith would have - 
been exterminated from the face of the earth, simply by the mur- 
der of every professor of it. For years and years together, every 
discoverable Christian had forthwith to choose between aposl 
and death. The reason is clear. Christianity was held to be at 
enmity, first with the established religion of the -lews, the most 
ferocious and unrelenting of bigots, and afterwards with the Roman 
Imperial Power, the greatest existing interest on earth.* At the be- 
ginning, the weak young twig had to be hidden from tin.' destruction 
with which all the powers of the earth menaced it. But as it grew 
up into a noble tree, it threw off its cloak of secrecy. It retains it, 
however, even t<> the present day. in countries under the domination 
>;' savage Paganisms, or scarcely less savage Romanism. 

The lesser reform movements before the great Protestant Reforma- 

* De Quincy, Hist, and Crit. Essays- vo]. ii. Secret Societies, p. 81 3. 



SECRET POLITICAL ASSOCIATIONS. 365 

tion in the sixteenth century, and indeed that Reformation itself, took 
more or less refuge in secret investigation and secret communion ; 
and for the same reason, viz., that open profession would have endan- 
gered the whole movement. Luther, proclaiming aloud his earliest 
doubts of the Romish doctrines, would have suddenly and silently 
disappeared. Indeed, it was only a like disappearance into the 
friendly concealment of the Wartburg, that saved him from the 
actual gripe of the iron-handed Church of Rome. Wicliffites and 
Hussites, wherever they could be hunted out, followed the fiery path 
to Heaven trod by their bold teachers, whose Reformations were sub- 
stantially quenched in blood. 

The Romish Church is a secret organization. It distinctly claims, 
and always attempts (and has too often succeeded), to over-influence 
and thoroughly control and direct all civil governments. For this 
purpose, as well as for the purpose of retaining a good hold upon the 
people at large, its constitution has always been essentially secret. 
It has operated through mystic forms. It uses an unknown tongue 
in its ritual. It wields a secret influence through the confessional. 
It centralizes its power in the hands of one man, and so proceeds that 
the masses of lay members, who are the basis of that power, are 
utterly ignorant of the mode of its use. The two great instruments, 
moreover, of the Romish Church — the two griping talons which serve 
it as his two great claws serve the lobster, to seize, hold, and crush 
its victims — are the Jesuits and the Inquisition. The Jesuit claw is 
for governments and nations, the inquisitorial claw for individuals. 
It is unnecessary to show how secrecy is the very life and breath of 
these wicked engines. They could no more live or work without it, 
than a fish could breathe without water. 

This secret plotting of the Romish Church, and the secret manoeu- 
vring of its two ministering spirits, have become so notoriously and 
undisputedly believed, that they serve to supply some of the com- 
monest and most forcible words of the English tongue. Seek out a 
name for some false and treacherous proceeding ; for some revoltingly 
tyrannical piece of oppression under forms of legal inquiry ; or for 



36 G VOICE TO AMERICA. 

man guilty of such things; — the proceedings, you re a 

Jesuitical plot ; or they are an Inquisitorial proceeding. The man is 
a Jesuit ; a crafty, Jesuitical fello . i him or 

mes, and whatever an ill name can do, is done. 

Yet notwithstanding this secret character — perhaps we should say, 
according to it — the Romish Church has invariably sought to des 
all secret organizations not professedly subordinate to it, by arms spirit- 
ual and temporal — sometimes by cursing, and 'mes by burning. 
The Freemasons were excommunic. a Bull of Clement XII. 
Freemasonry has been the crime for which many victims of the 
Roman Inquisition have died in the lire, or suffered torture and • 
fiscation. The purely literary or philosophical Illuminati and ] 
crucians in Germany, the Carbonari in Italy and France, the i 

•ns and Odd-Fellows everywhere, have operated under open 
opposition, and even actual persecution. 

To leave organizations distinctively religious — The Illuminati and 
Rosicrucians, although they proposed only philosophical i; 
tions, or the moral and intellectual improvement of their members, 
yet used doctrines so liberal as not to be orthodox in the estimation" 
of established governments; and therefore necessarily worked 
as long as they Fnited Irishmen, who am stab- 

lishing an inde] in Ireland, worked in 

foui. a terrible bugbear to the English government, 

and were finally ... The Italian Carbonai 11 as 

their sue seeking the freedom of Italy, held tl 

ir hand. The)' existed, as they yet exist, only 
the Romish of the Peninsula could not find them. 

Republic iking the : ' Hungary, yet live the 

oppi ustrian soldiers and Aus- 

trian »lely by secrecy. The bullet, or the hangu 

rope, would be their portion within tl 'their <; ; 

Bi multiply in . In religious, politico- 

. d political movements alike, for pur or bad, 

in o\ lien they have <lir. lin ly opposed 



SECRET POLITICAL ASSOCIATIONS. 367 

constituted interest?, secrecy has been an element. Especially, it is 
hardly possible to name an important political enterprise, successful 
or not, which has not been nursed under a secret shadow. Our own 
history informs us, that the Convention which framed the Constitution 
of the United States sat with closed doors from the 25th of May, 
to the 17th of September following. 

w words, indeed, are more familiar to the reader of history, than 
plot and conspiracy. We barely suggest the English Revolution of 
1G88 ; the Irish revolutionary efforts from 1780 to 1848 ; the various 
French Revolutions ; the Huugarian Revolution ; the Italian, German, 
and other Continental Revolutions of 1848; the periodical pop-gun 

olutions of Mexico and South America; and our own Revolution 
of 1776. The beginnings of such enterprises, according to the Greek 
fable, must be hidden, as the baby Jupiter was on Mount Ida, other- 
wise thev will be swallowed up by the powers that be ; as Saturn, 
the constituted authority of the period, swallowed up all Jupiter's 
little brothers and sisters ; and for a like reason. The old monster 
knew that it was foretold that one of them should supersede him. 
But when the new-born power has strength enough to proceed 
openlv, it does as Jupiter did — it vigorously assaults and dethrones 
the wicked Titans. 

In the political management of the present day, more peaceful 
phases of the spirit which operated the bloody plots of old times, yet 
prevail. Secret political machinations are perhaps as numerous, and 
as harmful, in our free nation, as in any other. Our parties originate 
in secret scheming, and are managed by secret scheming. Who 
knows the facts of the political life of any leading politician of the 
present century ? — how he secured a nomination ; arranged with the 
"friends" of this or that rival; secured the support of this or that 
leadino- newspaper ? Mackenzie's notorious Collection of Letters is a 
series of confidential communications passing among the set of yew- 
York politicians, of whom Martin Van Buren was one. It furnishes 
a great mass of details relating to the mingled threads of their per- 
sonal and political fortunes, as unreservedly discussed among them- 



368 A VOICE TO AMERICA. 

selves. That collection, embracing many documents referring to the 
lives and fortunes of Van Buren, Hoyt, Swartwout, B. F. Butler, Cam- 
breleng, and the numerous tribe of their allies and followers, furnishes 
the best illustration ever yet published, of the spirit and practice of 
American politicians. Aud throughout the long and tortuous series 
of transactions of which it treats, it is secrecy always, and inviolable, 
which is assumed to be the cloak and necessary medium of all the 
enterprises and combinations. 

AVas it open management that organized the opposition that lat- 
terly arose against Washington's administration, under the name of 
the Republican party I AVas it open management that nearly made 
Aaron Burr President of the United States ? Is it open management 
that at the present day presents candidates for the suffrages of Ameri- 
can freemen ? Did open management nominate Polk or Pierce for 
the Presidency ? Who knows, indeed, how his own State Governor 
was nominated and chosen ; how many sly bargains and private 
schemes were contrived and executed to complete the present organi- 
zation of any State Legislature ? Who knows even the precise mode 
in which were selected aud appointed the municipal government of 
his town or city, and the business committees under it, or even the 
officers of his school district ? Who knows precisely how are origin- 
ated and carried through such measures as the Nebraska Bill ; the 
Collins Mail Appropriation ; or any other of the public or private 
measures that yearly are enacted by Congress ? Who knows how the 
State Legislature is guided ; or how the vote in town meeting or city 
council, for or against a sewer or a park, is arranged ? It is not 
claimed that nobody knows, by any means. A few know; and these 
few take very good care not to tell. The main body of voters do 
not know hoiu or why the men for whom they vote, were set up for 
suffrage. 

It is true that the old political parties, iu their "nominating con- 
ventions," proceed with open doors; speeches are made, and resolu- 
tions adopted, but all this machinery amounts to nothing more than 
the mere publication of the acts of secret committees, the moving 



SECRET POLITICAL ASSOCIATIONS. 369 

cause and reason for the resolves being unknown and unseen. When 
the great elections are pending, does not each party have its secret 
agents in Washington — meeting in dark conclave — flooding the 
country with sealed packages ? And does not the party in power 
carefully keep the key of the Post-office? Is not then the finger 
pressed on the lips ? " Say nothing !" " Keep dark !" These and 
other cabalistic words, with all the mysterious inuendos of conspiracy, 
are uttered with low tones and smothered breath ; and all justified, 
commended, practised, and applauded. W^hat, then, is there so 
strange in the practice of the American party, desiring to keep its 
own secrets ? 

Secret management, by the retention of these "State secrets" in 
the hands of a few astute men, who handle the caucus and conven- 
tion machinery, the parties through it, and the nation through the 
parties ; is the whole essence of political operations in the United 
States. Indeed, our political parties belong to the most perfect spe- 
cies of secret organizations, because the rank and file of the army 
do not know its leaders. 

The conclusions thus far reached in this chapter are these : 

1. Secrecy is indifferent in itself, and good or bad according to the 
use which is made of it. 

2. Secrecy is often necessary in the beginnings of reformatory en- 
terprises which interfere with established interests. 

3. Secrecy is an established and universal element in the usual 
course of American politics. 

The American Party is young. It has grown to its present stature 
by the spontaneous gathering of the people to its standard, rather 
than by the efforts of any apostles. Its strength has come volun- 
tarily from either of the two great parties, or from the increasing host 
of political sectarians or neutrals. The active enmity of all these it 
naturally would and did incur. The masses of these established 
organizations were not altogether opposed, as the success of the new- 



370 A VOICE TO AMERICA. 

comer shows, to its principles: but the leaders of them were in the 
unhappy case of a sL i is pinched. They jumped 

up in a fury, I at all creation. But they did no execution, 

use they did not know where the trouble came from. Under 
such irritating circumstances, it is perfectly natural that they should 
indulge in condemnations • of the very practices which are the b 
of their own influence. People seldom relish being attacked with 
their own weapons. Their editorial yokefellows were in the same 
difficulty, and were further annoyed at the slight put upon their pro- 
fessional importance. They could not discover the facts about this 
new movement, either for their personal gratification, for paragraphs 
and editorials in the paper, or for the use of " the party." They con- 
sidered that they had a prescriptive right to knOw every thing 
and to tell it or not, at their discretion ; and here was something of 
which they seemed doomed to know nothing, first or last, except by 
its results. So they very generally joined in the outcry. It was to 
be expected that editors, shut out from all participation, would revile 
an organization that they knew nothing about ; and that politicians, 
with their legs knocked from under them by invisible blows, should • 
cry out in distress as they fell into the pit which their own hands 
had pr» 

nsuing upon this m 

of action has, in fact, saved the American Party from ve dan- 

, if not from destruction. It has confounded and i 1 all 

s of opposition. If there had in the beginning been open 
pro- . importunate grasping after disciples, and all the ordinary 

"ad^ partment" of new enter] ,,ould not the i 

par. .line have sufficed to keep the new party down, and the 

old one would have been a great bin 

me, and of threats ; But 

. >med wi was invi- 

al details 
of the plan I to secure this y. It is not necessary to 

claim perfection for human productions. ret mode of 



SECRET POLITICAL ASSOCIATIONS. 371 

operating, if the history of our political parties is authority, is in itself 
proper and defensible. 

Secrecy is not a necessary constituent principle of the American 
Party. Secrecy is an old abuse — an established vicious practice of 
the old parties. It was a temporary necessity of the new party. But 
if the American Party has any mission in this respect, it is to break 
up the secret mode of operating, and to introduce a new and open 
mode of political action. It proposes to destroy the old irresponsible 
despotism which has been exercised over the masses of the people, 
and to introduce the present generation, for the first time, to a free 
democratic practice in self-government. The xlmerican Party pro- 
claims the New Era of Government by the Intelligent Action of 
American Freemen. This is now, in effect, a new principle. This 
Intelligent Action is a necessary constituent principle of the new 
party. And by just so much as the members of it are more intelli- 
gent, by as much the permanent maintenance of the secret mode of 
operation is less practicable. Accordingly, the approaching end of 
this state of things is shown by the many and significant secessions, 
and threats of secession, which are already dividing the Party in 
various States. Now, therefore, the American Party needs carefully 
to consider whether henceforward an open activity — a new thing in 
American politics — is not its necessary condition of success. This 
" unprecedented attraction" will be much more potent than the veil 
of a concealment which, after all, is enticing to the weak-minded 
rather than attractive to the wise. 

The American Party has not been organized to take advantage of 
secrecy, as if it were a newly discovered method of political operation. 
It has been organized to work against secret political organizations, 
namely, the old political parties, and the Eomish Church. It does 
not attempt to introduce an unjustifiable new mode of political 
management ; it proposes to destroy an unjustifiable old mode. It is 
already contrasted with the old parties by its free and bold avowal 
of that secret mode of operation which they used without avowing it. 
It now has an opportunity to cast away even this avowed secrecy, and 



372 A VOICE TO AMERICA. 

to enlist our voters into a great and new party — a united, intelligent, 
free and open organization of American freemen, expressing their 
own views and wishes as to the government of their own country ; 
when that shall have been accomplished — America will be redeemed, 
not from Popish Jesuits only, but from political Jesuits as well. Then 
w r ill be inaugurated the dominion of true political freedom ; of which 
there is practically none, to-day, in these United States. 



THE AMERICAN REPUBLIC, THE HOPE OF THE WORLD. 

" The preservation of the sacred fire of Liberty, and the perpetuation of the Republican model 
of government, were censidered by its founders as finally staked en the experiment intrusted to 
the hands of the American people." 

WASniSTGTOX. 

Ours is a period in the world's history, when great and important 
events crowd on the attention almost too rapidly to admit of properly 
studying them, or of estimating their consequences. The Present 
seems to be in league with the Future, to put to open shame the 
deeds of the Past. Events have run together so hurriedly for the last 
half century and more, that it would appear as if the time had arrived 
for their imravelment. Where the torpor of indifference has lain 
with its benumbing influence, symptoms are now beginning to be 
perceptible of returning consciousness and animation. The oppressed, 
whose energies have long been worn with the chain, are ready to 
herald the first ray of light in their prisons, with peans that shall 
reach the heavens. The weary-hearted are once more recruiting 
their strength, with the hope that the beautiful dream of their souls 
is about to find its happy realization. The blind are again groping 
about in their cells, callins; for the aid of their deliverers. All things 
are made to feel the influence of the new spirit that rules the age. 

The nations of the earth seem to be hurrying forward for the ad- 
justment of accounts long overlooked and forgotten. All are eager 
to present their claims, and to receive, as soon as may be, the share 
that in equity is their own. Topics are now in discussion, that, but 
a short while ago, were left out of the category altogether. Interests 
that, till now, never presumed to thrust themselves from the oblivion 
in which they were buried, are now openly canvassed. Rights now 
find a tongue, that heretofore have been unnoticed and unknown, for 

17 



374 A VOICE TO AMERICA. 

want of any one to advocate and plead for them. The times are 
wonderfully changed. A revolution has been wrought. The sword 
has not done it, though the sword has been sheathed but little during 
this lono- interval ; but it is the silent work of awakened and intelli- 
gent public opinion, which no power is able to withstand. It cannot 
be cajoled from its position ; it cannot be bribed ; once fixed, it can- 
not be driven from its place by either force or fear. 

For years, the continent of Europe has been the theatre of revolu- 
tions, succeeding one another with a rapidity truly astonishing. 
France* seems, from the beginning, to have been the furnace in which 
all the fires have originated. One ruler has given place in Paris to 
another, till it has become difficult to keep the various changes in 
mind. Thrones have been erected and overthrown, as if they were 
but the baubles and playthings which the greater Xapoleon affected 
to consider them. 

Italy has given signs of regeneration. Throughout her line of 
States, from time to time, encouraging voices have been heard in the 
name of liberty, and now and then her people have risen upon their 
usurpers, to wrest from them the power they have so wrongfully 
exercised. From far-off shores, the flame has been seen burning in 
that classic land; and hop' a entertained that it was ;. 

bright and lasting illumination. Bui Mich hopes have all been cast 
down. With Austrian swords at their throats, and French bay 
at their breasts, it was scarcely to be expected that the people of Italy 
could succeed in so unequal a contest A guard is quartered now 
in every house; but no military surveillance can imprison those 
expansive ideas, or the spirit of those vital principles, that spread so 
mysteriously over the fa'ce of a land. Xo power is sufficient to over- 
awe those deep and scarcely audible mutterings, which presage the 
earthquake by which all things are destined to be shaken. 

The struggle of Hungary for independence adds a new and bright 
chapter to the book of the world's history. It was an unsuccessful 
effort ; and some may conclude that its failure established the worth- 
lessness of the cause contended for : but the very unhappiness of the 



THE HOPE OF THE WORLD. 375 

issue has had the effect to draw upon that people the sympathies 
of liberty-loving hearts everywhere, and their example has been re- 
corded as one worthy of imitation, wherever the sound of freedom 
has been heard. Hungary reposes ; but we believe that hers is the 
rest which recruits the strength, and precedes other and more earnest 
efforts in the cause for which her energies have been exhausted. 
She fell by treachery, more than by the combination of foreign ene- 
mies ; and when her tattered ensigns are lifted again from the dust, 
the wish of all American hearts will be, that they may lead on her 
armies to the speedy and successful achievement of her freedom. 

The German States from time to time have felt the throes of this 
mighty convulsion. Of all others, they seemed the least likely to 
resist the current of liberal ideas. They were the earliest to hail the 
light that came dancing over the earth, and welcomed it with hearts 
that had been tutored to the love of liberty. Great things were ex- 
pected of them, and great things should have been performed. But 
the spirit was not universal. It had not yet struck deep root in the 
common heart. The masses had not yet gone far enough in that 
school of bitter experience which inculcates high resolves in man. 
The existing order of things carried a preponderating influence whicb 
was hard to overcome. The ancient and time-honored barriers it was 
difficult to remove ; but another and a far mightier obstacle was, the 
close and compact union of absolutism in its own defence. Monarchy 
was made to feel that upon this one effort might forever depend its 
existence. The conspiracy was successful. The weary ones, whose 
faith had been so enduring in behalf of their holy cause, succumbed 
to the pressure they could no longer resist, and took up their abode 
in foul prisons, — wandered,, sad-hearted, abroad, to eat the bread of 
exiles, — or laid down and died, desponding forever of freedom. 

If we scan the history of Europe for the last few years, it will 
offer us little else than a confused record of struggles and repulses, of 
efforts and disappointments, of hopes and fears, of popular outbreaks 
and tyrannical usurpations. Sometimes, indeed, the rulers, trembling 
for their immediate safety, have granted concessions, in order to ap- 



376 A VOICE TO AMERICA. 

pease the popular clamor ; but on regaining power, all these conces- 
sions have been blotted out, and tyranny has become more exacting 
than ever. In this, absolutism was only true to its own nature. As 
soon as it was safe to lay aside the mask, it never failed to exhibit its 
true character in all its hideous proportions. Not once has it offered 
gifts to the people, which it did not, at the time, resolve to take back 
again, with usurious interest. 

Austria, Prussia, Russia, France — what else can the eye fasten itself 
upon in scanning the history of their more recent acts, but records of 
murder, of imprisonment, of fines and confiscations, of banishment, 
of leagues against liberty, of cruelty and tyranny in all their multi- 
plied forms ? Where is the hope to-day that their people are making 
themselves ready to go forward with the conflict that will reward 
them with freedom ? How many of the population of those empires 
are languishing abroad at this moment, dying lingering deaths far 
from home and friends, rather than swear away the freedom of their 
consciences at the dictation of crowned conspirators ! Who shall tell 
the number, or the acuteness of their sufferings ? Who shall estimate 
the depth of that grief which seems able to consume both body and* 
soul together ? 

Europe is now a seething caldron. The great game of the kings, 
carried on so long with impunity, at last appears to be completely 
blocked. The rulers are at a stand. Events have mastered ambi- 
tious men ; and the extended laws of cause and effect, running silently 
through a course of centuries, at length seem about to vindicate their 
supreme authority. Politics is now another name for confusion. Min- 
isters study and scheme how they may extricate their royal masters 
from their dilemma, and give over their efforts with exclamations of 
mortification and despair. The rulers grasp their sceptres more 
firmly, fearing thai it cannot be Ion-- ere they must give them up 
forever. Cabinets have grown timid, and dare not assert with former 
boldness the policy of their several courts. There is a manifest want 
of confidence everywhere. Annies are called into service, till there 
are scarcelv anv men left to recruit them. The treasuries are de- 



THE HOPE OF THE WORLD. 377 

pleted by enormous drafts, and bankruptcy and ruin threaten nations 
that but yesterday were prolific in resources. 

But in the midst of this inextricable confusion, certain signs are 
beginning to betoken the increasing interest which foreign countries 
take in our national welfare. We see, from time to time, symptoms 
of a more decided leaning to republicanism. Here and there sturdy 
words are spoken — at the right time and in the right place — in our 
behalf. The spirit and principles of our government find admiring 
friends where it was least to be expected. Our institutions are criti- 
cised and commented Oil in an appreciative temper, and without that 
rancor and prejudice which was once so certain to be excited, by the 
mere mention of our name. 

It is too important a truth for any of us to overlook, that the 
American Republic is the home of Liberty, and the final hope of the 
world. Through the efficacy of her example and her teachings, 
must redemption finally -come. We hold the treasure in our own 
keeping ; we are the trustees of a possession that is to enrich man- 
kind. On our soil dwells that living spirit, which is, in time, to 
overthrow error, tear away the deceits of usurpation, deprive tyranny 
of its power, and everywhere animate the human soul with the belief 
that freedom was coeval with its birth. 

If the world may not hope in us, then all hope is in vain. The 
experiment of a free government is one with which we have made 
ourselves familiar. With the institutions which belong to such a form 
of government, we have an acquaintance that is practical, and thus 
the more valuable. Their spirit has infused itself into our habits, 
our customs, and our ways of thought. If these privileges are worthy 
to be perpetuated, none ought to be more eager and earnest in the 
performance of such a work, than we who have so freely enjoyed 
them ; and it should therefore be a labor of love with us, to publish 
their blessings to the world. 

Foreign rulers no doubt regard us with jealousy, convinced that 
our system is incompatible with the secure existence of their own. 
It must be so, in the very nature of things. The work of Eepubli- 



378 A VOICE TO AMERICA. 

canism is a silent one, because it deals with the understanding alone. 
Other systems put forth military power, to crush out opposition by 
brute force, and to secure acquiescence by fear. But true Liberty 
has no such murderous weapons in her armory. The means by 
which she works are those that soonest disarm tyranny, and bring 
usurpers to confusion. She appeals not to prejudice, but to reason. 
She overcomes opposition, not with opposition, but with the teaching 
of sublime truths that cannot be resisted. 

Americans should not forget their invaluable trust. They should 
be as true as their forefathers to the hope which is committed into 
their keeping. Through menace, and artifice, and open opposition, 
they should walk undaunted ; holding their way with the resolute- 
ness that will take them out of the reach of fear, and vindicating by 
every act of their lives those immortal truths which form the broad 
basis of our national existence. 

Above all things, sectionalism is to be frowned upon as the worst 
enemy known to the republic. Let it come from what quarter it 
may, the heart that harbors the thought of it without fear, and with- . 
out regret, is nowise worthy of the stamp of the American name. 
They who cherish it with the hope thereby of raising their individual 
fortunes, will certainly be classed witli the Arnolds and Iseariots of 
our race. 

It is a monstrous thing, that after so many years of national pros- 
perity, the men can be found who dare openly excite one portion of 
our people against the other. Honest differences of opinion are to 
be looked for, and open expressions of those differences are a neces- 
sary consequence ; but to excite treason, to inflame sectional preju- 
dices, to build up barriers between one State and another, to breed a. 
swarm of pestilential sentiments that threaten to infest the land like 
a plague, — is to put one's self without the pal-' of honorable American 
citizenship, and beyond the reach of hones! men's consideration. 

If we are to possess a nationality of our own, we must become 
one people. There can be no strength to the national character, if 
its forces are dissipated by domestic divisions. Unless we are able 



THE HOPE OF THE WORLD, 379 

to stand together, we must straightway fall in pieces. The moment 
unity begins to relax, disease and death set in. with all their ravagiDg 
train. Differences should exist only as spurs to efforts of greater 
patriotism. If they take hold on the character of citizenship itself, 
qualifying its value and demeaning its rank, they become mischiefs 
instead of aids, and ought to be silenced, even at the cost of the 
greatest sacrifices. 

In so vast an area as that comprised within the limits of the United 
States, it would not be at all strange if there were a great diversity of 
interests. It is to be expected that, on numberless subjects of local 
concern, the inhabitants of the different sections should entertain di- 
rectly opposite opinions. Nothing is potent to counteract the effect 
of these divisions, and to draw together the widely separated interests 
of our extended country, but some sentiment that shall take a deeper 
root in the heart than mere interest, and control all other influences 
by its superior # power. We look in vain to any other sentiment for 
the performance of this work, than that of love for one's country. 
Once fixed in the heart, there is no supplanting it It is strong 
enough to shape all the affections and interests that are recorded in 
the list of our common humanity. 

And if other people are to be found whose hearts beat quick at the 
mention of their country's name, Americans have reasons a thousand- 
fold stronger for laying all their nobler feelings on the altar of patri- 
otism. We are addressed by considerations such as appeal to no 
other people on the face of the earth ; we have entered on an experi- 
ment without a parallel in the history of the world ; we are seeking 
great and hidden truths ; we hold the hopes of all liberty in our 
hands ; and the wise men of other nations are watchiug the course of 
our star with both jubilant and prayerful emotions. Surrounded by 
such stern realities, and weighed down with these vast responsibilities, 
imposed by Heaven itself, he must utterly fail to understand his true 
relations to his fellow-men, or even to diseern the meaning of his own 
existence, who remains indifferent to the great circumstances that 
beset his situation. 



380 A VOICE TO AMERICA. 

There is no safety for us, except in unity of feeling and harmony 
of action. We must learn to consider the whole country as dear to 
our hearts as any single part of it ; to forget the too ready feeling 
-which promote distrust and alienation ; to cherish every true and 
noble sentiment that enfolds within its embrace the welfare of the 
whole of our common country ; to cultivate feelings of brotherhood 
and peace ; to hold steadily up to contemplation the one idea of our 
high American name and nationality, 

No consideration should be allowed to take precedence of a spirit 
of patriotism. Our country before all things, should be both the 
sentiment and the motto. Union as well as liberty, should be on 
every one's tongue. Nationality as well as freedom, should vitalize 
the thought of every one's heart. No great good can be permanently 
secured, except by generous and oft-repeated sacrifices. No human 
institutions can hope for stability, unless they are founded in the 
deepest human conviction of their necessity, and sustained by the 
perpetual heroism of those to whom their value is apparent. "We 
must either be brethren, or become aliens to the memories of the 
past. We must sink jealousies in nobler considerations, or lose si edit 
of all the promises of our glorious future. We must earnestly de- 
termine to be nothing but Americans, — knowing no greater name, 
and resolved that there shall be no greater nation, — and at once the 
bright inheritance becomes ours, and our grandest hopes leap forward 
to their swift realization. 



ppsitfoix* ' 



SECRET SOCIETIES AND OATHS. 

Judge Gayle, of Alabama, formerly a Whig member of Congress, 
and a prominent man in bis State and elsewhere, has written an able 
letter to some of his personal friends, from which we make the fol- 
lowing extracts, bearing upon the political topics of the day. After 
considering and endorsing the platform of the American party as 
maintaining the great principles of free government, he gives reasons 
which oua'ht to commend his views to all o/ood citizens. 

This remarkable party was formed some eighteen months since, to correct the 
flagrant abuses which, had crept into public affairs, and which threatened the 
most serious consequences to the union of the States and the government. The 
arts of demagogues, and the corrupt practices of the two great parties of the 
country, had trained the public mind to regard with indifference, if not with 
approbation, the advancement of men without merit to the high and responsible 
trusts of the government, which had hitherto been reserved as the reward of 
experience, of wisdom, of tried patriotism, and of elevated and enlightened 
statesmanship. 

Each of these parties professed to have some good principles, it is true, but 
all observing men witnessed, with disgust, the total disregard and abandonment 
of these principles in disgraceful and revolting scrambles for office. 

The extraordinary increase of the foreign population had been witnessed with 
concern by all considerate Americans. Tides of immigration had wafted to our 
shores, in almost countless numbers, the people of all nations and all countries 
— of all grades, classes, and conditions — from the haughty Briton to the grovel- 
ling, besotted Chinaman ; from the high-toned, educated gentleman, to the ig- 
norant serf and convicted felon: all demanding and all alike admitted (none are 

17* 



382 A VOICE TO AMERICA. 

ever rejected) to tlic privileges of the ballot-box, thereby filling our halls of 
legislation with men of their own choice, and exerting a commanding influence 
in the passage of laws for the government of this American country of ours. 

They had seen these people occupying, as they are constantly doing, exten- 
sive districts of country in large communities to themselves — having but little 
intercourse with our citizens, without which they can never acquire the true 
American impression of our government, or imbibe the true spirit of our laws. 

They had seen theinrform separate societies and associations, and organizing 
into large military bodies, to the exclusion of our people, showing an aversion 
to incorporate with them, or to assume the American character, and evincing 
a preference for the manners, habits, customs, and institutions of their respec- 
tive nations. 

They had seen them convene in large political assemblies, and with charac- 
teristic arrogance demand changes in our constitution and laws to suit the pe- 
culiar views in which they had been trained and educated from infancy. 

And above all, and worse than all, they had witnessed the degradation of the 
country in our national legislature, by the passage of laws conferring upon \in- 
naturalized foreigners the full right of suffrage in the territories, and all the 
other rights, privileges, and immunities which form the priceless heritage of the 
native-born citizen, in total disregard of the Constitution, which confers on 
Congress the power to pass uniform naturalization laws only. 

The allegiance of these aliens is wholly due to the crowned heads of the 
countries from which they emigrated. They have no right to claim the protec- 
tion of our government, or to petition for a redress of grievances. In case of 
war with the nations to which they belong, as alien enemies, they would be lia- 
ble to be seized under the laws of Congress, to have their goods confiscated, and 
themselves imprisoned or sent out of the country. And yet it is upon these 
people, composed, :is a large majorirty are known to be, of the vicious dregs of 
European society, that authority introlling the ballot-box, and 

of exercising the high and responsible functions of our territorial governments. 
The right of suffrage has also been conferred on aliens in some of the States. 

Now, if the foreign population has, at this early period of our history, ac- 
quired such commanding influence in our national and state legislatures, it re- 
quires no prophetic sagacity to predict that the day is not distant when they 
will control the destinies of this great republic. 

This idea has Btrongly and universally impressed itself upon the public mind, 
and given rise to that truly noble and patriotic sentiment that " Americans shall 
rule America." This sentiment proclaims the existence ot' that intense Ameri- 
can feeling and love of country which is a surer safeguard of our Liberties than 
tir constitutions, and which can never more than partially animate the bo- 
Bom of the foreigner, because nature has given him the same inspiration for his 
own native land. 

The correction of these and other abuses, to the dangers of which no one can 
be indifferent, was the principal inducement to the formation of the American 



APPENDIX. 383 

party. They saw that they had their origin mainly if not entirely in our natur- 
alization laws. A million and a half of American voters have banded together 
in one great political brotherhood to cause these laws to be repealed or modi- 
fied; and roused and animated as they are by the feeling just stated, you can 
no more defeat them, in their purposes, than you can suppress the feeling 
itself. 

The feature of this remarkable American party that has been deemed most 
assailable, and accordingly has been attacked with the greatest violence and 
rancor, is the secret or private character of its organization. Jacobin club, se- 
cret conspiracy, underground party, dark-lantern party, and such like epithets, 
have been unsparingly applied to it. These are very ugly names, intended to 
awaken popular prejudice, and to render an object hideous which is otherwise 
comely enough. 

The party is composed of numerous societies or councils, dispersed through 
the country, and established at localities to suit the convenience of its members. 
These localities are made public, the times of meeting are made public, their 
membership is public, and, what is of more importance, the result of their de- 
liberations is made public. These councils, or societies, to accomplish the great 
objects of their institution, went sedulously to work, and their joint efforts, in 
au incredibly short space of time, have enabled them to lay before the public, 
the great principles, to the support of which they stand pledged before the 
American people. Their consultations, as to the details of their platform, were 
necessarily private ; but when their great work was done, they submitted it to 
public inspection, and if well done, the public will not take the trouble to in- 
quire into the process by which it was accomplished. 

The simple question is, are these private associations, formed for great public 
purposes, hostile in their tendency, as they are asserted to be, to the free insti- 
tutions of our country, and to the true spirit of the Constitution? 

The right of the people peaceably to meet together and to consult upon pub- 
lic affairs, whether their meetings are private or public, whether in the form of 
private societies or public assemblies, has never before been questioned in this 
country, even during periods of the highest political excitement and exasper- 
ation. 

As evincive of the jealousy and apprehensions of the fathers of the republic, 
they classed the right of the people peaceably to assemble (privately or publicly 
and without restraint) with the right of petition, religious freedom, the freedom 
of speech and of the press, and in the first articles of the amendments of the 
Constitution, prohibited Congress from passing any law to abridge them in any 
manner whatever. 

These have always been revered by the enlightened friends of free govern- 
ment, as among the great elements of human liberty, and it is to be regretted, 
that, without reflection it is hoped, they or any of them should be denounced 
by persons of standing and character, as hostile to our free institutions. 

If there is truth in history, private political societies have ever proved them- 



384 A VOICE TO AMEBIC . 

selves the natural enemies of tyrants, and the natural and indispensable allies 
of republics. In despotisms they are resorted to by necessity, and in free gov- 
ernments through choice, as being more efficacious and convenient in compass- 
ing the objects proposed, whether they look to the improvements in govern- 
ment or to the correction of abuses. Since the accession of the house of Bruns- 
wick to the English throne in 1714, these private associations for all purposes, 
whether political, commercial, religions, or any other, have been of universal 
prevalence. They are so interwoven with the business of the people, in all its 
branches, that they have become a part of their social organization, and if any 
attempt were made to restrain them, a blaze would be kindled throughout Eng- 
land that it would be difficult to extinguish. 

But of all countries in the world, they are most prevalent in the United States, 
especially those of a political character. They are the peculiar and exclusive 
machinery which have kept our political parties in motion during the entire 
period of our existence as a nation. This will be acknowledged by all, and 
denied by none. All the platforms that have ever been formed by these parties 
have been the result of private and secret meetings, of secret consultations and 
deliberations ; and the mere matters of detail employed in their formation are 
never known, and never sought to be known, except at the instance of imper- 
tinent curiosity. 

Pending our presidential elections, these societies are formed throughout the 
country under the name of clubs. They are as numerous as the cities, towns, 
villages, hamlets, and neighborhoods of the whole country, and all affiliated in a 
common brotherhood. The information of each is rapidly and secretly commu- 
nicated to the others, and -all their schemes, plans, and contemplated move- 
ments are as carefully withheld from the public as are the plans of hostile 
armies from each other. These periodical organizations are very much on the 
plan of those of the American party, and they are quite as secret in their char- 
acter. No one has ever blamed or censured them for this, for it is obvious that 
without them success would be hopeless. It is therefore too late in the day to 
denounce private political associations, and anathemas come with a bad grace 
from those who invented, and have always resorted to them. 

But the American party administer oaths to their members. This, in the 
opinion of its enemies, is very horrible, and the Billingsgate vocabulary is too 
meagre to supply appropriate epithets for its condemnation. It is, they say, 
anti-republican and anti-democratic. This accusation has been as inconsider- 
ately made as that against the secret character of the order. If oaths are taken 
to bind men to a course of conduct that is moral, charitable, and benevolent in 
its purposes, or if they are taken to bind them to the support of the great prin- 
ciples of liberty as contained in the Constitution of the United States, such 
oaths cannot be regarded as either wicked, immoral, or unlawful. They are re- 
quired to be taken by all public officers to support the Constitution, and it is 
not perceived that there is any thing wrong in requiring the members of a polit- 
ical party to come tinder the obligations of an oath to support the great princi- 



APPENDIX. 385 

pies contained in the same instrument, such as the right of petition, the liberty 
of speech and of the press, the purity of the ballot-box, &c, which are among 
the cardinal principles of the new party, and it is devoutly wished that they 
may be faithfully maintained, even if it be by the instrumentality of oaths. 

But it is said that the members are required to swear that they will be gov- 
erned by the decisions of the majority, and particularly in the nominations of 
candidates for office. The answer to this is, that any member dissatisfied with 
any of the principles or regulations of the party is at liberty to withdraw from 
the order, and he becomes- immediately released from any oath he may have 
taken. 

The charge of religious proscription is not to be combated by argument or in- 
ferences. It is a fact to be determined by the platform itself. Conspicuous 
among the articles of that instrument is—" the protection of all citizens in the 
legal and proper exercise of their civil and religious rights and privileges, and 
the maintenance of the right of every man to the full, unrestrained, and peace- 
ful enjoyment of his own religious opinions and worship." 

Thus, gentlemen, you have my views and opinions briefly and hastily ex- 
pressed, though deliberately formed, of the character, principles, and objects of 
the American party. They have been derived entirely from its own publica- 
tions, and conversations with its members. I am not a member of the order, 
and have no connection with it beyond a lively sympathy in its efforts to estab- 
lish and maintain the great conservative principles it has adopted. 
I am respectfully your obedient servant, 

JOHN GAYLE. 



II. 

RELATIONS OF THE POPE TO THE CIVIL POWEE. 
Letter from 0. A. Brovmson. 

Bcstox, Tuesday, June 12, 1855. 

Mr dear Sir : I have received this moment yours of the 7th instant, with its 
inclosure. I am a little at a loss to determine what course to take. There are 
no numbers of my Eeview wherein I have maintained the civil authority of 
the Pope in this country ; but as there are several numbers in which I have 
discussed the relations of the two orders— temporal and spiritual— I think I 
shall, upon the whole, best answer your wishes by sending them. I will there- 
fore order my publisher to send you all the numbers of 1853 and 1S54. 

You will find in the articles entitled the " Two Orders;' January, 1855, " The 
Spiritual not for the Temporal;' April, and " The Spiritual Supreme;' July, of 



386 A VOICE TO AMERICA. 

the same year, the statement of my doctrine on the subject ; and in " You Go 
too Far, 1 " 1 January, 1854, " The Temporal Power of the Popes," April, 1854, and 
" Uncle Jack with his Nephew," for October of the same year, my explanations 
and defence of my doctrine. 

May I ask you to read these articles in the order in which I have named them ? 
If you will, although you will doubtless find much which, if a non-Catholic, 
you will object to, I am sure you will find no such doctrine as I am accused of 
holding. The subject I treat has been much obscured by controversy, and I am 
liable to misapprehension by those who have not studied it somewhat profound- 
ly from the Catholic point of view. I treat the subject only under certain aspects, 
and for Catholics, and many of the terms I use have in Catholic theology a tech- 
nical sense, which those not familiar with that theology may misapprehend. I 
say this in excuse of those who have misrepresented me. 

I claim — and never have denied for the Pope, out of the Ecclesiastical States 
of which he is the temporal sovereign — no temporal or civil jurisdiction, power, 
or authority, properly so called. The only power the Pope has in this country, 
is his power over Catholics as the spiritual head of the Church. It is purely a 
spiritual power, and can be exercised only for a spiritual end, and even then 
only over Catholics, for the Church does not judge those who are without. 

Mr. Brownson is here asserting the usual doctrines of his Church 
in those countries in which his creed is in the minority. The Church 
does judge those who are without, else wherefore the Athanasian 
curses ? 

In matters purely temporal, I, as a Catholic, owe no obedience to the Pope, 
because he has received from Jesus Christ no authority as a temporal sovereign 
over me. He cannot make or unmake the rights of the sovereign or the duties 

of the subject — abrogate the former or absolve from the latter. 

| 
This paragraph is entirely annulled by the succeeding portion of 

the letter, and history stamps falsehood upon such assertions. 

Thus far, all Catholics, whether the so-called ultra-Montanes, or the so-called 
Galileans, are agr< ed. The dispute lies not here. All agree that the State is 
supreme and independent in its own order — that is to say, in the temporal order. 
But what I maintain is, that the temporal order is not supreme 
Ivt, in the very naturt of things, subordinated to the spiritual, si >>/ of man 

— the end for u I mad him, di }"ns him by hit 

Every man who believes any reli 
at all, whether Catholic or non-Catholic, does, and must admit this; for it is 
only saying that we must obey God rather than man, and live for the Creator 
rather than the creature. This premised, I think I can state to you, in a few 
words, the doctrine I do really hold. 



APPENDIX. 387 

The italics are Mr. Brownson's own. The inference drawn from 
them immediately after, is worthy the followers of Loyola, but Prot- 
estants cannot, will not admit it. If " the State is supreme and in- 
dependent," — what does the writer intend by its being " subordinated 
to the spiritual ?" — " Much learning doth make thee mad." 

Inasmuch as tlie temporal order is subordinated to the spiritual, it follows tliat 
the State is under the laws of justice, consequently the prince holds his powers as 
a trust, not as an indefeasible right, and therefore forfeits them when he abuses 
them, and loses his right to reign. This is the common doctrine held by all of us 
Americans, and all Catholic doctors teach and always have taught it. It lies at 
the foundation of all true liberty, and is the only doctrine that can ever justify 
resistance to the temporal powers. This right of resistance of power, when it 
becomes tyrannical and oppressive, I take it for granted, is held by every 
American. 

But here is a difficulty. The Church, following the Holy Scriptures, makes 
civil allegiance a religious duty, and says with St. Paul (Romans viii. 1, 2) : 
" Let every soul be subject to -the higher powers, for there is no power but 
from God. Therefore, he that resisteth the power resisteth the ordinance of 
God, ami they that resist purchase damnation to themselves." Here you see 
I am forbidden by the law of God to resist the power, and commanded, on peril 
of damnation, to obey. Here is my conscience bound to obedience, and my 
conscience as a Catholic can be released only by a declaration of my Church, as 
the divinely appointed director of conscience, that the prince of tyranny and 
oppression has forfeited his right, fallen from his dignity, and ceased to reign. 
What I claim for the Pope, as visible head of the Church, is the power to re- 
lease my conscience from this religious bond, and to place me at liberty to resist 
the prince become a tyrant. This is all I understand by the dispensing power. 

The power itself, everybody, not a tyrant or a slave, asserts. The American 
Congress of 1776 asserted it, and deposed George III. The only difference is, 
some (jive it to the people, some to the individual / and I claim it for the Church, 
and the Pope as head of the Church. 

So that the Church has, necessarily, " an indefeasible right" to 
control the secular power, as seemeth it best ; and constitutes itself 
a judge in all matters between the State and the ecclesiastical power^ 
Mr. Brownson claims the same right to resistance on behalf of his 
Church, which the wdiole body of Americans possess ; but he forgets 
that the right to resistance, when invested in a whole nation, is 
scarcely so liable to abuse, as when the sole prerogative of one man 
— be he Pope, or aught else. 



388 A VOICE TO AMERICA. 

The Pope does not iu this exercise a civil power or jurisdiction, and it is call- 
ed his temporal power only because it is a power exercised over temporal sov- 
ereigns, or in relation to the obligation of the subject to obey the prince. Bat 
even here the Pope does not relieve from civil allegiance, for that the prince had 
forfeited by his tyranny. lie releases the subject only from the spiritual or re- 
ligious obligation, superadded by Christianity to the civil, and this only in case 
of the Catholic conscience. 

The Pope is the proper authority to decide for me whether the Constitution, of 
this country is oris not repugnant to the laws of God. If he decides that it is 
not, as he has decided, then I am bound in conscience to obey every law made 
in accordance with it ; and under no circumstances can he absolve me from my 
obligation to obey, or interfere with the administration of government under it, 
for the civil government is free to do according to its constitution whatever it 
pleases, that is not repugnant to the laws of God or to natural justice. That it 
is free to do more than that, I presume no man in this country will pretend. 

Again the italics are the author's. We forbear to criticise, but we 
say to our fellow-countrymen — behold these opinions, the sanctioned 
tenets of the Romanist party in our republic ; for Mr. Brownson 
"never publishes anything, until he has first submitted it to the 
bishop." There is a sword hanging in terrorem over our heads, and 
it merely awaits the verdict of a mitred prince, to raise civil war in 
our midst, and desolate the Union throughout its wide extent. 

[ have made these remarks to aid you to understand the doctrine of the 
articles to which I have called your attention. 

You are a stranger to me, but I take you to be a serious-minded man, and a 
lover of truth and justice; as such I have d you. I have no doctrine 

or opinions that I wish to conceal. I am a Catholic. As such, I aim to be true 
to my God, and to my fellow-men. 

I have the honor to be your obedient servant, 

0. A. BROWNSON. 

Hugh J. Davis, Esq., Warrenton, N. C. 



in. 

FOREIGNERS AND THE ELECTIVE FRANCHISE. 

Less than ten days Bince, we had occasion to notice the manifesto of the Louis- 
ville Branch of the "Free German" Union, and to point out the dangerons ten- 
dency of such anarchical organizations. We did not then anticipate that the cf- 



APPENDIX. 389 

fects of the principles they hold, aided by Irish violence at elections, would be 
so speedily and fatally felt in that city. It will not be possible, until more accu- 
rate details shall have been received with regard to the*bloody occurrences that 
have disgraced Louisville, to decide adequately in what proportion the guilt of 
murder, arson, and riot is to be divided between the native and foreign popu- 
lation. If the telegraphic reports prove to be accurate, a general understand- 
ing must have existed between the Germans and Irish, previous to the election, 
that^hey would go armed during the day, and prevent Americans, by every 
means, from approaching the polls. The first outrage was committed by a body 
of Irish or Germans, as early as nine o'clock in the morning. The next attack 
was made upon Americans, several of whom were wounded, by Germans, who 
fired upon them from their houses and a brewery in which they had intrenched 
themselves. It is not stated that any provocation was given; but exasperation 
— perhaps inflamed by drink — at the defeat of their ticket, was probably the 
main cause of the violence which these ruffians had recourse to. They reaped, 
however, bitter fruits from their mad folly. A crowd of Americans assembled, 
burned the brewery, and after a conflict of considerable duration, sacked sev- 
eral houses. Up to this time, although some persons had been wounded, it does 
not seem that any one was killed. The scene of slaughter commenced in a dif- 
ferent part of the city at a later hour, and was again initiated by a gang of Irish. 
From this time the riot assumed the dimensions of a street battle. The Irish, 
who had been guilty of the last assault, intrenched themselves in houses, where 
they were besieged by a crowd of Americans, infuriated at the crime that had 
been committed, and the tumults of the night did- not end until a large num- 
ber of lives had been lost, and several blocks of houses had been burned. On 
the day after the election, the excitement still continued, and at the last accounts 
yesterday, renewed outbreaks were feared during the coming night. Many 
foreigners were, however, leaving the city, and there is little doubt that a com- 
plete victory has been gained over them by their antagonists. 

Pitiable is the lot of most foreigners that land on our shores. They emerge 
suddenly from subjection to tyrannical rule, and habits of slavery that genera- 
tions have stereotyped, into that paradise of the depraved and unthrifty, the 
possession of active political rights. The story is familiar to every one, of the 
Irishman, who, after regarding for some time with wonder a threshing machine, 
cried out, " Wre bloody sthrong, but ye can't vote" The Irish, alas, can vote ; 
so can the Germans, and between them they are acquiring, in the hands of dem- 
agogues more iniquitous than themselves, a control of elections in many of our 
States, of which it is time that Americans should be wearied and ashamed. 
Eight months ago, the subject of amending our Naturalization Laws was brought 
before Congress, by Senator Adams of Mississippi. Eeference was made, at the 
time, in our columns, to the able speech which he made on that occasion, and 
hopes were entertained that the measure he proposed would be dispassionately 
discussed, and, with some necessary amendments, adopted by Congress. It 
fell, however, to the ground. Politicians are afraid to meet boldly, either in 



390 A VOICE TO AMERICA. 

Congress or the State Legislatures, the embarrassments which this question, so 
important for the future interests of the country, presents. They dread the 
local opposition which advocacy of manly and patriotic measures of reform would 
subject them to, and shrink from being ostracised by foreigners, whose opposi- 
tion at the polls might prevent their re-election to office. The wisdom of the 
proposal that the term of residence of aliens should be prolonged, before they 
are permitted to enjoy every right of Americans born, is, recognized by provi- 
dent, far-sighted Americans of all parties ; but this cowardly fear of losing 
votes, on the part of aspirants for office, opposes more than any thing else an 
effectual obstacle to proper legislation. The indiscreet manner, too, in which 
foreigners have been confounded by many with the power they wield, and the 
intermingling of religious elements in all Native American parties that have 
hitherto existed, have tended to delay, if not totally hinder, an impartial exam- 
ination of the question, what rights it is expedient to bestow upon persons born 
abroad. 

It is the duty of the people and government of the United States to welcome 
to our shores those who come here with a claim upon our hospitality, and to 
the home for themselves and education for their children, which we can so ea- 
sily afford to bestow. It is also a bounden obligation to act towards them the 
part of kind protectors, shielding them by our laws, permitting them to hold 
property, and to transfer it to their children, and even to acquire such control 
over the soil as they can secure by the labor of their hands. These privileges, 
however, which the immigrant has a right to look for, and which our laws the-_ 
oretically give, are poisoned, and rendered practically nugatory by the prema- 
ture addition, indiscriminately, of the right of suffrage. The poor Irishman or 
German encounters, as he lands in our seaport-, a monster who is legally au- 
thorized to obstruct with a frequently impassable barrier his pathway to the 
happy home to which he is entitled, and where he might enjoy abundantly the 
products of the soil, and become a frugal, sober, and industrious denizen of 
the land. This monster is political temptation. The hard-handed, humbly- 
conditioned Irish laborer, as well as the clodhopper socialist from Germany, both 
sink into corruption by our own fault, more than by theirs. They are at once 
instructed that they may vote in six months, a year, or less, if fraud is employ- 
ed to attain the object. They are taught to consider themselves an army of po- 
litical invaders, are enlisted either in infidel associations, or under the banners 
of rum-selling middle-men, and made to reinforce the \ ing condottieri 

between parti. often at elections turns the scale in favor 

bidder or the latest payer, and w i dges from candidates in favor of infi- 

del encroachments, or impunity to do wrong. Foreigners who — if their con- 
not drugged by the fatal right to vote before they know the 
A B C's of our political alphabet, or can distinguish between liberty and license, 
excitement and disorder, or comprehend the secret of acquiescing in the will of 
the majority — might become eventually themselves, or through their children, 
good citizens, arc enticed by the glitter of goldea bribes to remain in large 



APPENDIX. 391 

towns and cities, where they spend freely what has been easily got, acquire 
habits of debauchery, and a ternate between riotous indulgence, the alms- 
house, and our prisons. The neglected offspring of such, brought up with 
their heads in the public-school, and their bodies in the gutter, ripen into that 
unnaturally shrewd, depraved, dangerous race of infidel bullies, fearing neither 
God nor man, whose vocation is to seduce others to sin and misery, and increase 
as widely as possibly the realms of moral ruin. 

Every little while, some solemn warning, like the recent riot at Louisville, 
troubles the minds of thinking men, and points forward to that period of civil 
discord by which we may some day be convulsed, if a remedy is not applied to 
the evil created by our present naturalization laws ; but unfortunately the age 
is too peculiarly one of excitement for any single event to leave a lasting im- 
pression. Yet if citizens will look back twenty-five years, to a time when disor- 
ders that are common now were regarded as impossible, and will then reflect 
upon the consequences of a like decline, for another quarter of a century, they 
will be convinced of the danger of delay, and of the rapidity and strength that 
anti- American influence is acquiring in the country. 

New York Journal of Commerce, Aug. 5, 1855. 



IV. • 

EELIGIOUS TOLERATION— HERETICS AND ROMANIST GRAVE- 
YARDS. 

P. Sharkey, Esq., of Jackson, Miss., writes to the Southern Mer- 
cury as follows, giving an incident of the War of 1812-1 5, in which 
he served : 

July 25, 1S55. 
To the Editor of tlie Mercury : 

As there has been a great deal said about ancient Catholicism, and old files 
hunted up to prove their hostility to the Protestants, and as I am a man of but 
little ancient reading, and a little on the Young American order, I will content 
myself by referring back to 1815, after the battle at New Orleans. 

I belonged to the Mississippi Militia, and was encamped on a French Catholic 
farm above New Orleans. After the battle was over, several of our men died 
by wounds and sickness, as they had been placed at Chef Menteur, where there 
was not one foot of dry land to stjmd or lie on, only as they would gather flags 
and make beds to lie on. We were some distance above New Orleans, and 
having no way of conveyance to a grave-yard, we proposed to bury our dead on 
the back or out-post of the farm. Went to dig a grave, without knowing the 



392 A VOICE TO AMERICA. 

hostility the Catholics had to heretics. The owner of the land came down and 
forbid us from burying our corpse. He appeared to be very much enraged, 
crying out, " Sacre fungas ! de American heretic no be put on my land." We 
said we must bury the man. He replied — " Me no care ; dere is de Mississippi 
river; throw him in de river." We soon made him leave, and when we went 
to bury our dead we always had our guns. Jo. Templeton was one of our 
Warren soldiers who shared the fate of the balance that were -buried there. 
"We were discharged at that place, and came home. Letters followed us from 
our friends, stating that as we left all the dead were taken up and put in the river 
by the owner of the land ; as though a dead heretic could hurt a live Catholic. 

Now I refer to any man that was belonging to Hinds' Dragoons, or the Mis- 
sissippi Militia, for the facts of this and the report that followed us. I will re- 
fer to a few by name : Esq. McDonald, of Madison ; Richard and Battle Harri- 
son, of Jefferson ; Haley Cotton, of Leake, as they were there, and know the 

facts as well as myself. 

P. SHARKEY. 

The above letter is from one of the most substantial and well- 
known citizens of the State of Mississippi, and what is the fact de- 
veloped ? This : a lay member of the Romish Church is so fired 
with hatred towards Protestants, that he denies a burial-place to the 
brave and patriotic men who came from an adjoining State to repel 
an invading foe. Men who died in battle in defending the home of 
the Romanist, have their bones dug up from their mother earth, and 
thrown contemptuously into the Mississippi, as if their dust defiled the 
land. Innumerable examples, where the Romish priests have undis- 
puted sway, displaying the same feeling, constantly occur all over 
the world. 



V. 

MILITARY IN THE CHURCH. 

The enthusiastic in the faith that American institutions need no safeguards, 
contend that the illuminating influence of Protestantism will, in this country, 
destroy the pagan rites of the Romish Church so common in Europe. We find, 
however, that this is not the case. The heathen custom of inaugurating statues, 
so common among the Greeks and ancient Romans, maintains its place in a 
church claiming to be Christian, and situated in enlightened America, and in 
the city of New York. 



APPENDIX. 393 

At the Church of the Redeemer (German Eomish), on Sunday, the 12th of 
August, 1855, "a statue of the Virgin was inaugurated with the celebration of 
High Mass. Some time before the hour for the commencement of the services, 
the body of the church was densely crowded, but the gallery was attainable to 
the lucky possessor of a sixpence, and was very comfortably roomy. Occupy- 
ing the front central seats was a military band, and behind them a company — 
one of the German rifle companies, we believe — in uniform. Up the side aisles, 
at short intervals, were the banners of various Catholic and benevolent societies. 
Festoons of flowers and leaves, arranged very tastily, ran from pillar to pillar 
all the way up the church, each bearing the name of a saint. 

" The large altar-piece was decorated, to use the choice expression of the an- 
nouncement, ' in a manner particularly beautiful.' Flowers and leaves were 
profusely used from top to bottom, and over all ran a cordon bleu, inscribed with 
the prayer, ' Eegina sine lobe concepta, orapro nobis.'' 

"In the centre of this high altar-piece, in a white-draped niche stood the 
statue of the Virgin, bearing the infant Eedeemer in her arms. The material is 
not mentioned, and of course could not be distinguished : we suppose it is of 
wood. The announcement above quoted, says it is ' of exquisite beauty.' It is 
very brilliantly painted. The robe is blue, fringed and starred with gold. The 
statue was encircled by a halo of gas-burners, arranged in star-shaped groups, 
and all the candles were burning at its feet. Mass was celebrated very finely. 
There is, or was on Sunday, a fine choir at the church, and the band assisted." 

Here we have the introduction of foreign military companies, as part of the 
pageant of a professedly religious ceremony. "We would have every reflecting 
American to ask himself, What is the meaning of this association ? and what 
right have troops, organized by the State, to connect themselves thus with the 
church ? 



VI. 

AMERICAN NATIONALITY. 

The " stars and stripes," the glorious emblem of the Union, form a parallelo- 
gram, with six white and seven red parallel stripes, denoting the union of the 
original Thirteen Colonies, with a blue square in the upper corner, next the 
flag-staff, cutting off four red and three white stripes, and containing thirty-one 
white stars, representing the number of States in the Union, combined in one 
large star, symbolizing the "many in one" of the national motto, " E pluribus 
unum.' 1 '' 

The great Union Flag was hoisted on the 2d day of January, 1776, at Cam- 
bridge, by General Washington. Lieut. Carter wrote from Charlestown Heights, 



394 A VOICE TO AMERICA. 

January 26th, 1776 : " The King's speech was sent by a flag to them on the 1st. 
In a short time after they received it, they hoisted a Union flag (above the Con- 
tinental, with thirteen stripes) at Mount Pisgat ; their citadel fired thirteen guns ? 
and gave the like number of cheers/' And Gen. Washington wrote from Cam- 
bridge, on the 4th of the same month, to Col. Joseph Reed: "The speech I 
send you. A volume of them was sent out by the Boston gentry, and, farcical 
enough, we gave great joy to them, without knowing or intending it; for on 
that day — the day which gave being to the new army — but before the proclama- 
tion came to hand, we had hoisted the Union flag, in compliment to the Colo- 
nies. But, behold ! it was received in Boston as a token of the deep impr< - 
the speech had made upon us, and as a signal of submission. So we hear, by 
a person out of Boston, last night. By this time, I presume they begin to think 
it strange that we have not made a formal surrender of our lives." Thus we 
have an acknowledgment of the presence of the stripes, and a device resembling 
the British Union Jack. This latter, instead of being above the stripes, was prob- 
ably in the place now occupied by the blue square and the white stars. From 
this it would appear that the Great Union Flag of the Colonies was the British 
flag modified by drawing six white stripes through the red field, thus making 
thirteen red and wlr.te stripes, representing the rebellious Colonies in Union. 
This flag probably was originated by the Committee of Conference, appointed 
by Congress, and composed of Dr. Franklin, Mr. Lynch, and Mr. Harrison; and 
the idea of such a modification of the British flag is not only simple but cer- 
tainly a very natural one, when we consider the circumstances and history of 
the times. 

The necessity for a change of the emblem of union was apparent ; and the 
thirteen Colonies readily suggested the idea of a constellation of stars. Conse- 
quently we find that the constellation Lyra was actually under consideration. 
and was used on passports. June 14, 1777, Congress passed the following : 
"Resolved, that the flag of the thirteen United States be thirteen stripes, alter- 
nate red and white : That the union be thirteen stars, white in a blue field, 
resenting a new constellation." It appears that the first act of Congress chang- 
ing the flag was on the 13th of January, 1794, when it was enacted, "That from 
and after the 1st day of May, a. d. 1795, the flag of the United States be fifteen 
stripes, alternate red and white ; that the union be fifteen stars, white in a blue 
field." The stars were arranged in a circle indicating eternal uuion. This was 
the flag of the United States during the war of 1812-14. In 1818, the flag of the 
United States was again altered, and, as we are informed, on the suggestion of 
the Hon. Mr. Wendover, of New York, a return was made to the thirteen stripes ; 
as it was anticipated the flag would become unwieldy if a stripe were added on 
the admission of each State; and, moreover, by the plan proposed, the union 
of the old thirteen as well as the number of members composing the 

existing Union, would be presented by this flag of the United States. Mr. W; 
also proposed the arrangement of the stars in the union in the form of a single 
star. In this there was n departure from the original design, as the perpetuity 



APPENDIX. 395 

of the Union ceased to be indicated by the flag, as it had previously been in the 
circle of stars, except so far as indicated by the several stars forming one large 
star. The resolution of 1818 was as follows: "That from and after the fourth 
day of July next, the flag of the United States be thirteen horizontal stripes, al- 
ternate red and white ; that the union be twenty stars, white in a blue field. 
And that, on the admission of a new State into the Union, one star be added 
to the union of the flag ; and that such addition shall take effect on the fourth 
day of July next succeeding such admission." 



vn. 

AMERICAN ELECTIONS. 

There was a time, we remember, when the good order and decorum of Amer- 
ican Elections was a common proverb, at home and abroad. That time, we fear, 
has passed, or is passing away. Not that the American people have grown, or 
are growing less attached to the principles of peace and propriety, nor less ca- 
pable of self-government, nor the government of their passions and prejudices, 
but rather because of the introduction into our popular contests of a strange # 
element, that is inherently inimical to Americanism in every leading impulse and 
aspiration. This pestilent influence, within a very few months past, has been 
fearfully provocative of bloodshed and strife, in some of the most populous cities 
of the Union. New Orleans, St. Louis, Cincinnati, and places nearer home, 
have, each in its turn, been made the scene of a sanguinary strife, generally 
growing out of nefarious attempts by Irish and Germans — but chiefly Irish — to 
interfere with American meetings, and American freedom of speech, in cases 
where it so happened neither those meetings nor that speech were shaped to 
accord with the sentiments, opinions, or beliefs, of a set of men, who are, of 
late year.s, but too prone to acknowledge the civil and political privileges they 
enjoy here (but which they never were permitted to enjoy " at home") by shoot- 
ing down Americans in their own streets, and blowing their brains out, when- 
ever they have the audacity to assemble together. Louisville, in Kentucky, it 
is grievous to see, is now passing through the same ordeal. — JV. Y. Express. 



viii. 

what causes election eiots 

Is the low education of our foreign population. The musket and the bayonet 
are the exponents of the law in foreign cities ; and what we bow to here, in 



396 A VOICE TO AMERICA. 

deference and obedience, as "law" — as the tvill of the majority — in other coun- 
tries is bowed to under the prick of the bayonet. Hence, when among such a 
people, the prick of the bayonet is removed, the law, or the will of the major- 
ity that makes the law, is resisted by riot, row, or murder. In Louisville, Ken- 
tucky, for example, the Americans beat on election-day ; but the foreigners 
there, instead of doing as Americans do, submit to the majority, in the absence 
of the bayonet, shoot from their houses Americans in the streets ! If the di- 
vision in Louisville had been between Whig Americans and Democratic Amer- 
icans, the moment the result was known it would have been acquiesced in, with 
general submission ; but the indignant foreign population in Louisville do, just 
as they would do — when they dare — in Paris, or Berlin, or Vienna; that is, ap- 
peal to the musket and fight . 

It is this spirit of resistance to law, to the majority, and to the declared will 
of that majority, which makes republican government almost impossible over 
sea — a minority that will not submit to a majority, but prefers a fight, as in 
Louisville ; and hence a result so deplorable. 

These numerous riots that we are having, wherever American interests come 
into political conflict with the interests or passions of foreigners, ouly go to 
show that government is a trade, which a foreign population cannot learn by 
instinct, but must be educated in by long training. Voting is a very simple 
act, but it means and embodies the idea of government, and government is a 
ice, which an Irishman, who cannot read, or a German, who knows not our 
language, and customs, and traditions, cannot learn in a single day. Indeed, 
the education of our foreign population is far easier, if we may so express our-" 
selves, than their uneducation. To unlearn what they know is their first duty ; 
and it takes years and years, but it is much harder work to unlearn than to 
learn. Jury trials, habeas corpuses, &c, are all Greek to them; but all these 
they can learn. "What they have to unlearn, however, is harder than Greek, 
and that is, armed resistance to law, to government, to majorities. The prick 
of the bayonet is not half so formidable to an American as the writ of the con- 
stable ; but this necessity of feeling the prick of the bayonet before they yield, 
.they must all unlearn. Revolutions are wrought here, not in arms, but with 
bits of paper in the ballot-boxes. Minorities have no rights against laws con- 
stitutionally passed, and constitutionally expounded and executed, while ma- 
jorities, even, have no rights, under laws unconstitutionally passed, or uncon- 
stitutionally executed. These are very hard problems for foreigners to solve, 
but we Americans solve them. "We often learn, too, that submission to wrongs 
is oftencr wiser than armed resistance by force. When we are whipped elec- 
tion-day, we lament our bad luck, and try it again, but seldom or never fight, 
unless attacked by force. The loss of the anti-American candidate for Congress, 
in Louisville, led to shooting Americans in the streets, and, of course, to the 
subsequent fearful retribution. 

Foreigners, if they were wise, would, themselves, call for a long training for 
their countrymen, before they cave them the right of gfoverniug at the ballot- 



APPENDIX. 397 

boxes. Men can no more be good soldiers after a day's enlistment, than good 
voters -without training. Government is a curious piece of human mechanism, 
which untaught fingers may spoil, but which they can never safely touch. A 
foreigner may be as wise as Humboldt in philosophy, but as ignorant as a babe 
of the mechanism of the government of the United States of America. Twen- 
ty-one years are wisely demanded of us Americans to live, to think, to look on, 
to hear, and to talk, and to see, and to study, before we vote. Thousands of 
foreigners vote fraudulently who have been in the country scarcely a year, and 
hundreds of thousands that cannot read the Constitution of the United States 
in the language in which its makers wrote it. — Nl Y. Express, Aug. 10, 1855. 



IX. 

GOLDEN MAXIMS OF WASHINGTON. 

"Let us have a government by which our lives, liberties, and properties, will 
hQ secured." 

" The government of the United States, though not actually perfect, is one of 
the best in the world." 

" It is among the evils, and perhaps not the smallest, of Democratic govern- 
ments, that the people must feel, before they will see : when this happens, they 
are roused to action." 

" If we mean to support the liberty and independence which it has cost us so 
much blood and treasure to establish, we must drive far away the demon of 
party spirit." 

a As there can be no harm in a pious "wish for the good of one's country, I 
shall offer it as mine, that each state would not only choose, but absolutely com- 
pel their ablest men to attend Congress, that public abuses may be corrected." 

" The preservation of the sacred fire of liberty and the destiny of the repub- 
lican model of government are justly considered as deeply, perhaps as finally 
staked on the experiment intrusted to the hands of the American people." 

" There are four thing3 which I humbly conceive are essential to the well 
being — I may even venture to say, to the existence of the United States as an 
independent power : — 

" 1. An indissoluble union of the states under one federal head. 

"2. A sacred regard to public justice. 

" 3. The adoption of a proper peace establishment. 

" 4. Prevalence of a pacific and friendly disposition among the people of the 
United States, making them forget their local prejudices and politics, &c." 

18 



398 A VOICE TO AMERICA. 

" As avenues to foreign influence in innumerable ways, such attachments are 
particularly alarming to the truly enlightened and independent patriot. How 
many opportunities do they afford to tamper with domestic factions, to practise 
the arts of seduction, to mislead public opinion, to influence or awe the public 
councils ! Against the insidious wiles of foreign influence, I conjure you to 
believe me, fellow-citizens, the jealousy of a free people ought to be constantly 
awake, since history and experience prove that foreign influence is one of the most 
baneful foes of republican government. But that jealousy, to be useful, must be 
impartial, else it becomes the instrument of the very influence to be avoided, 
instead of a defence against it. Excessive partiality for one foreign nation, and 
excessive dislike for another, cause those whom they actuate to see danger only 
on one side, and serve to veil and even second the arts of influence on the other. 
Eeal patriots, who may resist the intrigues of the favorite, are liable to become 
suspected and odious, while its tools and dupes usurp the applause and con- 
fidence of the people to surrender their interests. 

" The great rule of conduct for us in regard to foreign nations is, in extending 
our commercial relations, to have with them as little political connection as 
possible. So far as we have already formed engagements, let them be fulfilled 
with perfect good faith. Here let us stop. 

" Europe has a set of primary interests which to us have none or a very re- 
mote relation. Hence, she must be engaged in frequent controversies, the 
causes of which are essentially foreign to our concerns. Hence, therefore, it 
must be unwise in us to implicate ourselves by artificial tics in the ordinary 
vicissitudes of her politics, or the ordinary combinations and collisions of her * 
friendships or enmities. 

" The unity of government which constitutes you one people, is a main pillar 
in the edifice of your real independence, the support of your tranquil lit] 
home, your peace abroad, of your t'your prosperity, of that very liberty 

which you so highly prize. But as it is easy to foresee that from diffei 

a, and from different quarters, much pains will be taken, many artifices 
employed, to weaken in your minds the conviction of this truth — as this is the 
point in your political fortress against which the batteries of internal and ex- 
ternal enemies will be most constantly and actively (though often covertly and 
insidiously) directed — it is of infinite moment that you should properly estimate 
tho immense value of your national union to your collective and individual hap- 
piness ; that you should cherish a cordial, habitual, and immovable attachment 
to it; accustoming yourselves to think and to speak of it as a palladium of your 
political safety and prosperity ; watching for its preservation with jealous anx- 
iety ; discountenancing whatever may suggest even a suspicion that it can in 
any event be abandoned ; and indignantly frowning upon the first dawning of 
every attempt to alienate any portion of our country from tho rest, or to enfeeble 
the sacred ties which now link together the various parts. 

" For this you have every inducement of sympathy and interest. Citizens by 
birth or choice of a common country, that country has a right to concentrato 



APPENDIX. 399 

your affections. The name of American, which belongs to you in your national 
capacity, must always exalt the just pride of patriotism more than any appella- 
tion derived from local discriminations. With slight shades of difference, you 
have the same religion, manners, habits, and political principles. You have, in 
a common cause, fought and triumphed together. The independence and lib- 
erty you possess are the work of joint counsels and joint efforts, of common 
dangers, sufferings, and success. 

" But these considerations, however powerfully they address themselves to 
your sensibility, are greatly outweighed by those which apply more immediately 
to your interest. Here, every portion of our country finds the most command- 
ing motives for carefully guarding and preserving the union'of the whole." 



X. 

MAXIMS AND OPINIONS OF. EMINENT STATESMEN, ETC. 

* { Hearken not to the unnatural voice, which tells you that the people of 
America, knit together, as they are, by so many cords of affection, can no longer 
live together, as members of the same family ; can no longer continue the mu- 
tual guardians of their mutual happiness ; can no longer be fellow-citizens of one 
great, respectable, and flourishing empire. Hearken not to the voice which 
petulantly tells you that the form of government recommended for your adop- 
tion, is a novelty in the political world ; that it has never yet had a place in the 
theories of the wildest projectors ; that it rashly attempts what it is impossible 
to accomplish. No, my countrymen ; shut your ears against this unhallowed 
language. Shut your heart against the poison which it conveys. The kindred 
blood which flows in the veins of American citizens, the mingled blood which 
they have shed in defence of their sacred rights, consecrates their union, and 
excites horror at the idea of their becoming aliens, rivals, enemies. And if 
novelties are to be shunned, believe me, the most alarming of all novelties, the 
most wild of all projects, the most rash of all attempts, is that of rending us in 
pieces, in order to preserve our liberties, and promote our happiness. 

" But why is the experiment of an extended republic to be rejected merely 
because it may comprise what is new ? Is it not the glory of the people of 
America, that, whilst they have paid a decent regard to the opinions of former 
times and other nations, they have not suffered a blind veneration for antiquity, 
for custom or for names, to overrule the suggestions of their own good sense, 
the knowledge of their own situation, and the lessons of their own experience ? 
To this manly spirit posterity will be indebted for the possession, and the world 
for the example, of the numerous innovations displayed on the American theatre, 
in favor of private rights and public happiness." — James Madison. 



400 A VOICE TO AMEEICA. 

" When your lordships look at the papers transmitted to us from America ; 
when you consider their decency, firmness, and wisdom, you cannot but respect 
their cause, and wish to make it your own. For myself, I must declare and 
avow that in all my reading and observation (and it has been my favorite study, 
I have read Thucidydes, and have studied and admired the master-states of the 
world), I say I must declare, that for solidity of reasoning, force of sagacity, and 
wisdom of conclusion, under such a complication of difficult circumstances, no 
nation, nor body of men, can stand in preference to the General Congress at 
Philadelphia. I trust it is obvious to your lordships, that all attempts to im- 
pose a servitude upon such men, to establish despotism over such a mighty 
continental nation, must be vain, must be fatal." — Extract from Mr. Pitt's speech 
in the British Parliament, Jan. 20, 1775. 

" "What is patriotism? Is it a narrow aifection for the spot where a man was 
born ? Are the very clods where we tread entitled to this ardent preference 
because they are greener ? No, sir, this is not the character of the virtue ; and 
it soars higher for its object. It is an extended self-love, mingling with all tho 
enjoyments of life, and twisting itself with the minutest filaments of the heart. It 
is thus we obey the laws of society, because they are the laws of virtue. In their 
authority wc sec, not the array of force and terror, but the venerable image of 
our country's honor. Every good citizen makes that honor his own, and cher- 
ishes it not only as precious, but as sacred. He is willing to risk his life in its 
defence, and is conscious that he gains protection while he gives it. For what 
rights of a citizen will bo deemed inviolable when a state renounces the prin-- 
ciples that constitute their security ? Or if his life should not bo invaded, what 
would its enjoyments bo in a country odious in the eyes of strangers, and dis- 
honored in his own ?" — Fisher Ames. 

" The imperishable records of our grand crusade against despotism are em- 
blazoned upon the scroll of Time, and are unsurpassed by the loftiest exploits of 
Eoman or Grecian heroism. The entire world watched with intensest interest 
the successes of our revolutionary progress, and that which many had considered 
problematical, has long since become matter of historic truth. To the people of 
the United States has been assigned the glorious work of effecting and pro- 
claiming the triumph of freedom. More than half a century has tested its 
stability and its power, affording a sufficient augury of its brilliant future." — 
U r. 

"It cannot be denied, but by those who would dispute against the sun, that 
with America, and in America, a new era commences in human affairs. This 
■ ra is distinguished by free representative governments, by entire religious lib- 
erty, and by improved systems of national intercourse, by a newly-awakened 
and an unconquerable spirit of free inquiry, and by a diffusion of knowledge 
through the community, such as has been before altogether unknown or un- 
heard of. * * * If we cherish the virtues and the principles of our fathers, 



APPENDIX. 401 

Heaven will assist us to carry on tlie work of human liberty and human hap- 
piness."— iSi<2. 

" The spirit of union is particularly liable to temptation and seduction in 
times of peace and prosperity." — Ibid. 

• "If we are true to our country in our day and generation, and those who 
come after us shall be true to it also, assuredly we shall elevate her to a pitch 
of prosperity and happiness, of honor and power, never yet reached by any 
nation beneath the sun." — Ibid. 

" The spirit of liberty, growing more and more enlightened, and more and 
more vigorous from age to age, has been battering for centuries against the 
solid battlements of the feudal system. All that could be gained from the im- 
prudence, snatched from the weakness, or wrung from the necessities of 
crowned heads, has been carefully gathered up, secured and hoarded, as the 
rich treasures, the very jewels of liberty. The popular and representative right 
has kept up its warfare against prerogative with various success : sometimes 
writing the history of a whole age in blood, sometimes witnessing the martyr- 
doms of Sydneys and Kussels : often baffled and repulsed, but still gaining on 
the whole, and holding what is gained with a grasp which nothing but the 
complete extinction of its own being could compel it to relinquish." — Ibid. 

" The first object of a free people is the preservation of their liberty ; and lib- 
erty is only to be preserved by maintaining constitutional restraints and just 
divisions of political power." — 3id. 

"Under the present Constitution, wisely and conscientiously administered, 
all are safe, happy, and renowned. The measure of our country's fame may 
fill our breasts. It is fame enough for us all to partake in Tier glory, if we will 
carry her character onward to its true destiny. Not only the cause of American 
Liberty, but the cause of Liberty throughout the whole earth, depends in a 
great measure on upholding the Constitution and Union of these States. Let 
it be a truth engraven on our hearts, let it be borne on the flag under which 
we rally in every exigency that we have one country, one Constitution, one 
destiny." — Ibid. 

" This glorious Liberty — these benign institutions, the dear purchase of our 
fathers, are ours — ours to enjoy, ours to preserve, ours to transmit. Generations 
past and generations to come hold us responsible for the sacred trust."— Ibid. 

" I have no fears for the permanency of our Union, whilst our liberties are 
preserved. It is a tough and strong cord, as all will find who will presump- 
tuously attempt to break it. It has been competent to suppress all the domestic 
insurrections, and to carry us safely through all the foreign wars with which we 
have been afflicted since it was formed, and it has come out of each with more 
strength and greater promise of durability. It is the choicest political blessing 



402 A VOICE TO AMERICA. 

which, as a people, we enjoy, and I trust that Providence will permit us to trans- 
mit it, unimpaired to posterity, through endless generations." — Henry Clay. 

" TJie Constitution of the United States.— 'Like one of those wondrous rocking 
stones reared by the Druids, which the finger of a child might vibrate to its cen- 
tre, yet the might of an army could not move from its place, our Constitution is 
so nicely poised and balanced that it seems to sway with every breath of opinion, 
yet so firmly rooted in the hearts and affections of the people, that the wildest 
storms of treason and fanaticism break over it in vain." — R. C. Winihrop. 

" A divine right to govern ill, is an absurdity : to assert it, is blasphemy. Pre- 
tensions to a divine right have been generally carried highest by those who have 
had the least claim to the Divine favor. Liberty is to the collective body what 
health is to every individual body. Without health, no pleasure can be tasted 
by man ; without liberty, no happiness can be enjoyed by society." — Bolingbrolce. 

" Which is the most perfect popular government ? ' That,' said Bias, ' where 
the laws have no superior.' ' That,' said Thales, ' where the inhabitants are 
neither too rich nor too poor.' ' That,' said Anacharsis, ' where virtue is hon- 
ored and vice detested.' That is the the best government which desires to make 
the people happy, and knows how to make the people happy. Neither the in- 
clination nor the knowledge will suffice alone, and it is difficult to find them 
together. Pure Democracy, and pure Democracy alone, satisfies the former con- 
dition of this great problem. That the governors may be solicitous only for the. 
interests of the governed, it is necessary that the interests of the governors and 
the governed should be the same. The interests of the subjects and rulers never 
absolutely coincide till the subjects themselves become the rulers ; that is, till 
the government be either immediately or mediately democratic." — Macauhiy. 

" Our own country, though happily exempt, — and God grant that it may long 
continue so, — from the troubles of Europe, is not exempt from the influence of 
the causes that produce them. We too are inspired, and agitated, and governed 
by the all-pervading, all-inspiring, all-agitating, all-governing spirit of the age. 
What do I say ? We were the first to feel and act upon its influence. Our revo- 
lution was the first of the long series that has since shaken every corner of 
Europe and America. Our fathers led the van in the long array of heroes, mar- 
tyrs, and confessors, who have fought and fallen under the banner of liberty. 
The institutions they bequeathed to us, and under which we are living in peace 
and happiness, were founded on the principles which lie at the bottom of the 
present agitation in Europe. We have realized what our contemporaries are 
laboring to attain. Our tranquillity is the fruit of an entire acquiescence in the 
spirit of the age. We have reduced the action of government within narrower 
limits, and given a wider scope to individual liberty, than any community that 
ever flourished before. 



APPENDIX. 403 

" We live, therefore, in an age, and in a country, where positive laws and 

institutions have comparatively but little direct force. But human nature re- 

% mains the same. The passions are as wild, as ardent, as ungovernable, in a 

republic, as in a despotism. What then is to arrest their violence ? I answer in 

one word, Religion?'' — Edicard Everett. 

" Let no one accuse me of seeing wild visions, and dreaming impossible 
dreams. I am only stating what may be done, and what will be done. We 
may most shamefully betray the trust reposed in us — we may most miserably 
defeat the fond hopes entertained of us. We may become the scorn of tyrants 
and the jest of slaves. Prom our fate, oppression may assume a bolder front of 
insolence, and its victims sink into a darker despair. 

" In that event, how unspeakable will be our disgrace — with what weight of 
mountains will the infamy he upon our souls. The gulf of our ruin will be as 
deep as the elevation we might have attained is high. How wilt thou fall from 
heaven, Lucifer, son of the morning ! Our beloved country with ashes for 
beauty, the golden cord of our Union broken, its scattered fragments presenting 
every form of misrule, from the wildest anarchy to the most ruthless despotism, 
our " soil drenched with fraternal blood," the life of man stripped of its grace 
and dignity, the prizes of honor gone, and virtue divorced from half its encour- 
agements and supports — these are gloomy pictures, which I would not invite 
your imaginations to dwell upon, but only to glance at, for the sake of the warn- 
ing lessons we may draw from them. 

" Kemember, that we can have none of those consolations which sustain the 
patriot who mourns over the undeserved misfortunes of his country. Our Rome 
cannot fall and we be innocent. No conqueror will chain us to the car of his 
triumph — no countless swarm of Huns and Goths will bury the memorials and 
trophies of civilized life, beneath a living tide of barbarism. Our own selfish- 
ness, our own neglect, our own passions, and our own vices, will furnish the 
elements of our destruction. With our own hands we shall tear down the stately 
edifice of our glory. We shall die by self-inflicted wounds." — G. S. Hilliard. 

" We less need new laws, new institutions, or new powers, than we need on 
all occasions, at all times, and in aU places, the requisite intelligence concerning 
the true spirit of our present ones ; the high moral courage under every hazard, 
and against every offender, to execute with fidelity the authority already pos- 
sessed ; and the manly independence to abandon all supineness, irresolution, 
vacillation, and time-serving pusillanimity, and enforce our present mild system 
with that uniformity and steady vigor throughout, which alone can supply the 
place of the greater severity of less free institutions. 

" To arm and encourage us in renewed efforts to accomplish every thing on 
this subject which is desirable, our history constantly points her finger to a most 
efficient resource, and indeed to the only elixir, to secure a long life to any popu- 
lar government, in increased attention to useful education and sound morals, 



404 A VOICE TO AMERICA. 

with the wise description of equal measures and just practices they inculcate on 
every leaf of recorded time. May we not all profit by the vehement exhortation 
of Cicero to Atticus : ' If you are asleep, awake ; if you are standing, move ; if 
you are moving, run ; if you are running, fly !' 

" All these considerations warn us — the gravestones of almost every former 
republic warn us — that a high standard of moral rectitude, as well as of intelli- 
gence, is quite as indispensable to communities, in their public doings, as to 
individuals, if they would escape from either degeneraoy or disgrace." — Leoi 
Woodbury. 

" The prosperity of the United States is the source of the most serious dangers 
that threaten them, since it tends to create in some of the confederate states that 
over-excitement which accompanies a rapid increase of fortune ; and to awaken 
in others those feelings of envy, mistrust, and regret, which usually attend upon 
the loss of it. Yet the Americans of the United States must inevitably become 
one of the greatest nations in the world. The continent which they inhabit is 
their dominion." — De Tocqueville. 



VALUABLE 



NATIONAL STANDARD WORKS 



PUBLISHED BY 



EDWARD WALKER, 

114 FULTON-STREET, NEW YORK. 



I. 

A VOICE TO AMERICA; 

OE, THE MODEL EEPUBLIC, ITS GLOEY OE ITS FALL; "WITH A EEYIEW OP 

THE CAUSES OF THE DECLINE AND FAILUEE OF THE EEPUBLICS 

OF SOUTH AMEEICA, MEXICO, AND OF THE OLD WOELD; 

APPLIED TO THE PEESENT CEISIS IN THE UNITED 

STATES. 

One volume, 12mo., about 400 pages, cloth gilt, $1.25. 

CONTENTS OF THE WOEXI 



The United States — Eetrospective and Pros- 
pective. 

The Ancient Eepublics — Early Civilization. 

Sparta and Athens. 

The Fall of Eome. 

Italian Liberty in the Middle Ages. 

The Anglo-Saxon Eace and Freedom. 

The Heroes of the Founders of Liberty. 

The Boundaries of Countries — how estab- 
lished. 

Eomanism and Freedom. 

The Effects of Eomanism and Protestantism 
on Civilization. 

The Eights of Conscience. 

Beligious Toleration. 

The Bible, the Charter of Liberty. 

The Principles and Perils of our Common 
Education. 

The Political Power of the Pope. 

Demoralizing Influence of Demagogism. 



Evils of Military Organizations exclusively 
of Foreigners. 

"What Constitutes the Eight to Vote ? 

Fallacy of supposing American Institutions 
need no Safeguards. 

Naturalization Laws of the United States. 

United States and Immigration. 

The Citizen of a Eepublic. 

American Nationality. 

Necessity of American Habits and Principles. 

The Eight of the Majority to Eule. 

Freedom from Foreign Influence. 

Origin of Political Power. 

Mexico and the South American Eepublics. 

America the Theatre of the Great Demon- 
stration. 

Secret Societies — their Use and Abuse. 

The American Eepublic the Hope of the 
"World 

Appendix. 



This work is written in an earnest American spirit, by able and experienced writers 
selected for their eminent fitness for the task, and will be found worthy the attentive perusal 
of the whole American people. It condenses a prodigious amount of most valuable informa- 
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classic and modern republics. This production will long be regarded as the great text-book 
for American citizens. It is so thorough in its investigations, and of such deep, stirring 
interest, that it cannot fail of making its direct appeal to the hearts of the people. 

405 



WALKER'S NATIONAL STANDARD WORKS. 

II. 

NATIONAL HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES; 

COMPRISING THE COLONIAL, REVOLUTIONARY, AND CONSTITUTIONAL 

RECORDS OF THE COUNTRY; BASED UPON AND INCLUDING THE 

DOCUMENTS OF THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT, &c. 

By Benson J. Lossing and Edwin Williams. 

In two volumes, royal 8vo., illustrated with numerous fine engravings 
on steel and wood, muslin gilt, $7. 

It is a work unique in its character, and of intrinsic value as a standard authority for the 
statesman, historian, and general reader; and no less important as the exponent of the polit- 
ical ethics and progress of the Confederacy. It will he regarded as the National History of 
our country during its three great epochs — Colonial, Revolutionary, and Constitutional — 
condensed from the national archives; including impartial biographical memoirs of the 
Presidents of the United States, from the times of Washington to the present, their admin- 
istrations, etc., and a mass of highly valuable national documents never before presented to 
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be at once apparent, since it is not only designed as a standard authority of reference, but 
also as the best work for all who desire to become thoroughly acquainted with the theory 
and working of our Constitution, its institutes and laws. Comprising, as it does, the great 
essentials of our national history, it will necessarily become of imperishable value to the 
American people. The two well-known names which appear on the title-page, afford a 
sufficient guarantee for the manner in which the work has been produced — its general 
excellence, comprehensiveness, and accuracy — Mr. B.J. Lossing, the author of the "Picto- 
rial Field-Book of the Revolution," and Mr. Edwin Williams, editor of the "Statesman's 
Manual," and other valuable statistical works. 

The numerous illustrations which accompany the volumes, are beautiful specimens of art,- 
and include exterior and interior views of the Senate of the United States, and House of 
Representatives, Government Buildings, Capitol, Custom-Houses, Mints, Forts, and a series 
of newly-prepared portraits of all the Presidents, &c. A copious analytical index is affixed 
to the work. 



in. 
THE STATESMAN'S MANUAL; 

CONTAINING THE PRESIDENTS' MESSAGES— INAUGURAL, ANNUAL, AND 
SPECIAL— FROM THOSE OF WASHINGTON TO THE PRESENT TIME : WITH 
THEIR MEMOIRS AND HISTORIES OF THEIR ADMINISTRATIONS. ALSO, 
VALUABLE DOCUMENTS AND STATISTICS. 

Compiled from: Official Sources, by Edwin Williams. 

The new edition brought doxcn to the present time. 

4 vols. 8vo., with Portraits of all the Presidents, cloth, extra gilt. 

This great national work has received the highest commendation from the Press through- 
out the country, as well as from some of the most distinguished personages connected with 
tho Federal and State governments. It is indispensable to all persons in any way con- 
nected with official or governmental affairs. A full analytical Index accompanies the work, 
by which immediate reference can be made to any great question— political, social, or legal. 

40G 



WALKER'S NATIONAL STANDARD WORKS. 



THE STATESMAN 8 MANUAL — CONTETCED. 



EXTRACTS FROM NOTICES OF THE WORK. 



"We can say no more, and ought to say no less, of this work, than that it is the most 
complete constitutional history of the United States that exists, or that can he constructed 
within the same space. It is indispensable to the library of every American scholar, as a 
book of reference ; and, as its title indicates, it is, and always must be, the Statesman's 
Manual"— New York Evening Post. 

" An indispensable work of reference to all persons engaged in pnblic affairs, and others 
who study the history and practical operation of our government." — President Taylor. 

" A very valuable work for reference. 1 ' — Hon. Henry Clay. 

" An exceedingly useful and valuable work." — President Polk. 

" Many hours of idle discussion and senseless debate might be spared to heated partisans, 
were this book at hand for appeal." — Democratic Reviexo. 

" It is a vade mecum that has no competitor among the books of this country." — Louis- 
mile Journal. 

"This is the most important contribution to American political history ever published. 
Certainly, no work can compare with this in condensed comprehensiveness, in accuracy, 
and in all the features which make such a book valuable." — N. Y. Courier and Enquirer. 

"It is emphatically a national work. No American library, however small, is properly 
made up, in which a copy of this Statesman's Manual is not found." — New York Express. 

" It presents information nowhere else to be found in a combined form, of the utmost 
importance to every American." — Boston Post. 

" It is a work of the utmost utility and value." — Boston Recorder . 

"This work is the best help to the study of the history, administrative and diplomatic, of 
the United States, that exists in the language. It should be in every library, and form a 
•cade mecum to every one who aspires to take part in the legislation of this country." — 
2few Orleans Picayune. 

"It is, in truth, the best historical narrative of our political statistics that has evar been 
published on the science of government, of any description whatever; for it furnishes, 
throughout, the varied and interesting development of the action of a free and enlightened 
government on the multifarious interests of society, and demonstrates that the latter are 
more perfectly guarded under the aegis of republican institutions than any other. This work 
is well written, well printed, and well bound, and must, sooner or later, enter into every 
library." — Home Journal. 

"This publication is invaluable, not only to the politician, but to every citizen. No 
American library will be complete without it." — New Orleans Bulletin. 

"No library should be without the book, and if any man has got a house without a 
library, let him purchase these to begin one. "We take it for granted that a work of such 
unusual interest will be universally called for."— Graham's Magazine. 

" Few productions of the present day have emanated from the press with stronger claims 
upon the public patronage than this. It is a noble attempt to present to the great body of 
the American people, in an available and popular form, the documentary history of" the 
executive government from its commencement under "Washington to that of Taylor, together 
with the details of each administration, in consecutive order, and a mass of important statis- 
tical matter not elsewhere to be met with." — Boston Courier. 

" It is indeed a work worthy of its title— national. There can be no doubt of its taking 
its placo permanently among works of the highest value." — Boston Register. 

"To say that these elegant and important tomes deserve a conspicuous place in every 
private and public library, is not all that should be said— they are indispensable to every 
lawyer, politician, or intelligent, patriotic citizen." — Boston Witness. 

407 



WALKER'S NATIONAL STANDARD WORKS. 

f . 

IV. 

A NEW AND ENLARGED EDITION (THE 20TH THOUSAND) OF 

DR. DOWIIffG'S HISTORY OF ROMANISM. 

COMPILED FEOM EOMISH AUTHOEITIES; TYITH SUPPLEMENT, BRINGING 
THE HISTORY DOWN TO THE PRESENT TIME ; , 

WITH FIFTY ENGRAVINGS. 

* 1 vol. 8vo., 800 pages, cloth gilt, $3. 

This valuable production, which, by common consent of the Press, literary, religious, and 
secular, throughout America and Great Britain, has been pronounced the standard authority 
upon the subject of which it treats, has already attained a circulation in this country of up- 
wards of thirty thousand copies. The great characteristic merit of this work, consists in tho 
fact of its being based almost entirely upon Romish authorities — for the most part inaccessi- 
ble to Protestant readers. It is the result of immense research and labor, and. is the most 
comprehensive and reliable work of its class extant. 

{5f~ The Prelates and Priests of the Romish Church are earnestly invited to give this 
work their candid perusal, as it contains no unjust strictures upon their Church, but is cath- 
olic in its spirit. 

"It is a history — veritable, authentic history— not a series of declamatory tirades against 
what the Romish Church is supposed to be by those who discard her doctrines and author- 
ity — but a plain, unvarnished history of what sho is actually by her own admissions and 
practices; a faithful and impartial exhibition, from her own archives, of her recorded and 
attested opinions and usages." — Protestant Churchman. 

"This work is admirably adapted to the times. Its circulation would do incalculable good 
in making known the system, tactics, errors, and dangers of Popery, and thus most effectu- 
ally put us on our guard. "We trust its beautiful appearance will secure it an introduction 
where its stirring appeals and thrilling facts will tell upon the consciences and hearts of the 
people." — National Protestant. 

" Its contents form a rich storehouse of historical instruction, which should be placed 
within the reach of every family.'* — N". Y, Christian Intelligencer. 

"It abounds in facts and incidents, and is better adapted to furnish a vivid and impres- 
sive portraiture of Romanism as it is, than any other book we know of." — Xcw York 
Evangelist. 

"An able work, comprising the results of extensive reading and research, and well adapted 
to fill an important chasm in our literature." — Lutheran Observer 



V. 

THE AMERICAN AND ODD-FELLOWS' 

LITERARY MUSEUM. 

COMPRISING GEMS OF LITERATUEE CONTRIBUTED BY MANY OF THE 
MOST EMINENT AMERICAN "WRITERS. 

Illustrated, with upwards of Thirty line Steel Engravings. Two elegant 
volumes. Trice — muslin, extra gilt, $5 ; gilt edges, $6. 

This beautiful work is of itself a library of choice, entertaining, and instructive reading — 
prose and verse — consisting of essays, Bketches, tales, and historic and descriptive narratives, 
etc. It is alike adapted for the social and the solitary hour, and peculiarly suited for the 
family circle. It contains nearly two hundred original contributions, by esteemed and popu- 
lar American writers. 

408 [ 













































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